• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

David Hume Kennerly

Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer

  • Images
    • Galleries
      • In and Out of Afghanistan
      • Greatest Hits
      • 2021 Inaugural Gallery
      • Ford Museum Exhibit
      • Election 2016
      • Hillary Clinton from the Archives
    • Pulitzer Prize Portfolio
  • About
    • Bio
    • Clients
    • Press
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Kennerly Archive
  • Fine Prints
  • Speaking

Archives for July 2020

You’re Fired!

July 21, 2020 By David Hume Kennerly

“You're Fired!"

The Story Behind the Photo

 

I covered the 2016 presidential campaign for CNN. The last two weeks were spent with Donald Trump’s traveling circus. (It was my 12th campaign, and they all seem that way!). I spent weeks listening to crowds chanting, “Build a wall, kill them all! Lock her up! Hang the bitch!” You get the idea. It was ugly out there. On top of that, candidate Trump would single out those of us in the press at every rally, shouting, “Look at them, the crooked media!”  Or, "Those cameras back here will never show this crowd," and singling out a cameraman on the press stand, "Look at him – he doesn't turn the camera. The only time they turn the camera is when we have a heckler, that's the only time they show the crowd." He was a broken record, it got old fast, but I never felt particularly threatened. The crowd, however, loved it, and especially enjoyed shouting, “CNN sucks!” at me when they saw my credential.

On election night I was in New York City in the Hilton Hotel ballroom with Trump’s supporters and the press corps to watch what most people thought would be the end of his presidential aspirations. It didn’t turn out that way, and what do you know, Donald J. Trump was going to be the 45th president of the United States of America, and I was there to document it.  Some of my friends thought I knew all along that it was going to happen. “Be honest Kennerly, you normally don’t cover losers.” I will admit the day before I had a feeling that it might happen. Of course I didn’t know, and believe me, I’ve photographed my share of losers.

Flash forward two weeks. CNN asked me to photograph an exclusive sit down with the president-elect in his office at Trump Tower. They had arranged it through Jared Kushner, who already was emerging as a major power player. This picture would replace my photo of Trump on the front of their campaign book, “Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything.” He had agreed to the sitting because it would become the cover of a special Inaugural edition. I was already a major contributor to the inside of “Unprecedented,” and had also spent time on the Hillary Clinton campaign taking pictures.

When I arrived at the president-elect's office, I was struck by all of the personal memorabilia he had, including a couch full of Trump bobblehead dolls, and other kitschy items. The walls were adorned with photos of him and various people, and the effect was more what I would have envisioned as the lair of the biggest car dealer in Omaha, not that of a billionaire-soon-to-be-president kind of place.

When President-elect Trump arrived, we talked a bit about having met in Los Angeles at Morton’s restaurant, a celebrity hangout at the time. It was a pleasant exchange, I gave him a little book of photos that I had taken on his campaign, minus the pictures of T-shirts threatening Hillary’s life. We were off to a good start.

I had a chair for him next to his desk, and you could see the Empire State Building out of the window behind him.  It was clear he was running late, so I got right down to it.  The first few frames were smiling, I thought too much, so I said, “Why don’t you give me the, ‘You’re fired look from The Apprentice?’” He obliged, but I thought it had swung too far in the other direction. I asked him to relax a bit and took a couple more. He then asked me if he could look at what I was doing, so I showed him the portraits in the back of the camera.”  He seemed to like them, and said, “I look better here than in real life.” I said, “So you’re not going to fire Jared?” He said no, Jared was going to be ok, and we continued the brief shoot. Seventeen frames and two minutes later I was finished. I knew that I had nailed it, and wanted to quit while I was ahead.

Later that day Jeff Zucker, the head of CNN, picked out the photo he liked, and ran it on the cover as promised. That photo was somewhere between the big smile and the “You’re fired,” look and seemed just right. It is also the go-to picture that is used every day on the network when they do a story about the president. I am using the tough guy moment here.

Lest you think that all ended well, President-elect Trump tweeted a late-night reaction when he saw the book version. “CNN just released a book called ‘Unprecedented’ which explores the 2016 race & victory. Hope it does well but used worst cover photo of me.”

A few weeks later some people who were visiting Trump in his office before he moved to Washington reported that he had a dozen or so of the books on his desk that he was preparing to sign. I’m assuming they were face down . . .

 

Photo by David Hume Kennerly

 

Canon 5Dsr, 85mm 1.2 lens @f/2

Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona: David Hume Kennerly Archive.
© Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

Filed Under: Blog

Primary Sidebar

Blog Archives

  • January 2025
  • November 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • December 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • June 2023
  • February 2023
  • December 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • December 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • October 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • May 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2012
  • May 2012

© Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Web Design by KRMD Author: David Hume Kennerly