David Hume Kennerly has been a photographer on the front lines of history for more than fifty years. At 25 he was one of the youngest winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. Kennerly’s 1972 award for Feature Photography included images of the Vietnam and Cambodia wars, refugees escaping from East Pakistan into India, and the Ali v. Frazier “Fight of the Century” World Heavyweight Championship at Madison Square Garden. Two years later Kennerly was appointed President Gerald R. Ford's Personal White House Photographer. 

Kennerly’s photos have appeared on more than 50 major magazine covers, and he has documented history in over a hundred countries. He has photographed ten United States Presidents, covered twelve presidential campaigns, served as a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine for ten years, and a contributing photographer for Time & Life Magazines for more than fifteen. American Photo Magazine named Kennerly “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography”, and Washingtonian Magazine called Kennerly one of the 50 most important journalists in Washington, DC. His work has been exhibited widely and he maintains a busy publishing, appearance and lecture schedule. 

In 2019, The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography acquired the David Hume Kennerly Archive, which features almost one million images, prints, objects, memorabilia, correspondence and documents dating back to 1957. His work will join that of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, W. Eugene Smith, and scores of other legendary photographers. In 2018, University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins appointed Kennerly the university’s first Presidential Scholar. 

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 was also a major contributor to their book, Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything. His exclusive portrait of the new president is on the cover. 

Kennerly also works extensively in corporate photography, and has a decade-long relationship with Bank of America. Kennerly’s most published photographs are those appearing on the millions of Girl Scout cookie boxes! 

He also maintains a busy appearance and speaking schedule, including on-air commentary, corporate keynotes, academic lectures, and speeches for professional organizations, conferences and panels. 

Kennerly’s work has been exhibited and collected by museums, corporate entities and individuals around the world. 

He also has an extensive film and TV production background. He was executive producer of The Spymasters, a 2015 CBS/Showtime documentary about the directors of the CIA. He also produced the 2013 documentary, The Presidents’ Gatekeepers, a four-hour Discovery Channel film about White House chiefs of staff. Kennerly was nominated for a Primetime Emmy as executive producer of NBC’s, The Taking of Flight 847, and was the writer and executive producer of a two-hour NBC pilot filmed in Thailand, Shooter, starring Helen Hunt. Shooter was based on his Vietnam experiences, and won the Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography. 

Kennerly has received the prestigious Lucie Award honoring the greatest achievement in photojournalism, and that same year delivered the commencement speech at Lake Erie College where he received an honorary doctorate. 

Kennerly is a Canon Explorer of Light, one of an elite group of photographers sponsored by Canon.