David Hume Kennerly Blog
The Image That Will Live in Infamy
Former President Donald Trump’s police booking mugshot, to steal a quote from FDR, is an image that “will live in infamy.” It will end up being the most published photo ever taken. Unfortunately for him it will also be how he will be remembered for eternity. His short-term political gain will be a long-term disaster. […] Read More
Frederick C. Weyand, Compassionate General
David Hume Kennerly remarks at the Gen Frederick C. Weyand U.S. Army Pacific HQ Building dedication Ft. Shafter, Hawaii, August 11, 2023 I would be remiss if I didn’t note that General Charles Flynn, and General Fred Weyand had a couple of things in common. They both commanded the 25th Infantry Division 50 years apart […] Read More
The Blast
Sixty three years ago, on August 7, 1959, I was 12 years old and something really bad happened in my sleepy little lumber town. Around one a.m. in the wee hours of a sweltering summer night the big siren over the fire station five blocks away from our house went off and woke me up. […] Read More
Robert F. Kennedy: The Man Who Changed My Life
In 1966 I was a 19-year-old newbie staff photographer for the Oregon Journal, the state’s largest afternoon newspaper. One of my first big assignments was to photograph Sen. Robert Kennedy appearing in Portland. Kennedy was going to be the first national politician that I would lay eyes and my lens on. It was a visit […] Read More
The Third Lift
I recently received a nice note from Bill Garlinghouse, a retired Navy combat cameraman who wanted to share a story with me about how a passage that he read in my book Shooter in the early eighties helped him out on his first foray into combat. I reprint this with his permission, and follow it […] Read More
Afghan Women Banned from Universities Women students attend a university class in Afghanistan Ten years ago, in 2012, I traveled around Afghanistan giving lectures on a free press and America’s First Amendment protections. Some of my best students were women at Afghanistan’s major universities. I took this of some of them during one of my […] Read More
The First Lady
Showtime recently announced that The First Lady series is cancelled. Mercifully it only had one season. This will spare other former presidential wives from the historical malpractice visited upon the three women portrayed in the show by creator Aaron Cooley. It will, however, be a crushing disappointment for those waiting for the Jacqueline Kennedy and […] Read More
Farewell Dirck Halstead
Everyone needs a mentor. Mine was Dirck Halstead. His was Robert Capa. Dirck never met Capa, but he was able to bid him farewell. Dirck Halstead and David Kennerly in Vietnam, 1972 Halstead had just graduated from high school in 1954 when he heard that photographer Robert Capa had been killed covering the Vietnam War. […] Read More
50th Anniversary of the Watergate Break-in
Kennerly’s Watergate Photo Gallery This is the 50th anniversary of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building. It led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. This image of Martha Mitchell was John F. Kennedy, Jr’s favorite political photo. I took it in 1970. Martha was the wife of […] Read More