DAVID HUME KENNERLY ARCHIVE  CREATION PROJECT

50 YEARS BEHIND THE SCENES OF HISTORY

Throughout his fifty-year career as a photographer and historian, Kennerly has created an extraordinary collection of images, objects and unique recollections.  The goal of this project is to protect, organize and share its rare and historic objects – and to transform its half-century of images into a cutting-edge digital educational tool that is fully searchable and available to the public for research and artistic appreciation.

In addition to the extraordinary images and rare vintage prints, the collection also includes an extraordinary number of unique objects  such as the cameras with which he photographed his Pulitzer prize-winning images in Vietnam, press passes, passports, flight records, caption envelopes, art,  and extraordinary objects and letters signed by world leaders.

WHY NOW?

Photos are fragile – almost as fragile as memories. While dangers such as loss or damage are always present, photo archives face even greater threats.  Too often archivists are handed collections after the creator has died, and with them much of the contextual information that adds immeasurable historic value to understanding the importance of the material. The foresight in tackling this archival project while David is still a working journalist means that not only will his images be preserved, but along with them the critical contextual information about them, and the stories behind the lens. In the age of the Internet we are able to share vast quantities of images in the blink of an eye, however without metadata, the true import of those images is often lost to history.