David Hume Kennerly
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, Trustee

TERM AS TRUSTEE:
June 2, 2008 through Present

BIOGRAPHY:
David Kennerly won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for a portfolio of his photos from the Vietnam War, the Ali-Frazier fight, refugees from East Pakistan in India, and combat in Cambodia. Two years later, at age 27, he was appointed President Gerald R. Ford’s personal photographer.

Kennerly was named, “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography,” by American Photo Magazine. He served as Contributing Editor for Newsweek for more than a decade, and a contributing photographer for Time and Life magazines. Kennerly has published several books of his work, Shooter, Photo Op, Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld, Photo du Jour, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford, and David Hume Kennerly On the iPhone.

He covered the 2016 presidential campaign for CNN, and was a major contributor to their book, Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything.  Kennerly won the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award, for his coverage of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s “Fireside Summit,” in Geneva in 1985. In 2015 he was recipient of the prestigious Lucie Award honoring the greatest achievement in photojournalism. Later that year he gave the commencement address at Lake Erie College, and was awarded an honorary PhD.

Kennerly received a Primetime Emmy Best Picture nomination as executive |producer of The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story, and another film that he executive produced, Portraits of a Lady featuring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor which made the short list of documentary films considered for the 2008 Academy Awards. He was producer of the four-hour 2014 Discovery Channel documentary, “The Presidents’ Gatekeepers,” about the White House chiefs of staff.

Most recently he was executive producer of the CBS/Showtime documentary, “Spymasters: The CIA in the Crosshairs.” Kennerly is a Canon Explorer of Light, one of an elite group of photographers sponsored by Canon.

GERALD R. FORD ORAL HISTORY PROJECT:
Read Oral History Interview with David Kennerly

FOUNDATION REMARKS:
Remarks at David Hume Kennerly “Extraordinary Circumstances” Exhibit Opening 
(remarks begin at 08:15 of video)
 

1976 – President Ford with his chief White House photographer David Hume Kennerly along with aide Terry O’Donnell, share a joke as they walk along the White House Colonnade followed by Secret Service agents. (Photo Courtesy of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library)

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