Transcripts For CSPAN3 Documenting History Through Photograp

CSPAN3 Documenting History Through Photography July 13, 2024

Ear kenearly will change in transform tiff ways. It is a prime example to integrating the arts into all aspects of the University Experience and to making it a true arts destination. Tonight, were in for such a treat as wei hear from john meacham and kenneth hume kenerly as dr. Robbins said, david will collaborate and work closely with faculty in aerz arz arts and the college of soech and behavioral, archive as an Invaluable Research for Student Research and for research. I am deeply proud that the center for creative photography will be home to this archive. The leadership and the staff of the center put in countless hours working with david and his team to make this acquisition possible and im really, really grateful for their efforts and hard work. I want to extend my gratitude to director brokenridge, director of the center for all of her work. [ applause ] and her work not only on this project, but making the center in many ways the jewel in the crown of what we mentioned arizona arts to be. This evenings remarkable event would not be possible without the sponsor bank of america and i would like ask you to help me to welcome adrian romero, tucson market president bank of america. Thank you very much. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, andy. Good evening. On behalf of bank of america, it is my honor to welcome and being with us tonight. I also want to thank university of arz, dr. Robert robbins and the center for creative photography for all their hard work and partnership in planning out tonights events. At bank of america we ask the question, what would you like the power to do . A response we often hear is to build strong and thriving communities. So its exciting to hear about this partnership that the university of arizona has developed with the arts and with david hume kenearly because we believe in the power of the arts to help economies thrive, educate and enrich societies and create Greater Cultural understanding. Art has the power to help individuals embrace and appreciate peoples background, culture, heritage and experiences which helps to strengthen communities. Tonight, david hume kenearly and john meacham will highlight some of the most important cultural and political issues of the time. David and john will discuss photography and culture and the way it bears witness helps us understand complex issues, evokes emotion and leads to a Greater Knowledge of our world. I am proud to support and celebrate the Great Partnership that bank of america has with david. Hes been a longtime partner not only working with our board of directors and hes traveled around the United States and to other countries covering our extensive social Responsibility Program such as our Global Ambassadors Program and our vital voices. Through our tenyear Partnership David has created a vast archive for bank of america and among other thing, photos underscore how we contribute to the local communities and the customers that we serve. So now david told me that working with us has been a Good Partnership in its own right and we also feel the same about him. So its for that represent that we are proud to sponsor this wonderful event. It is exciting to be extending this Partnership Bank of america has with david to include the university of arizona and the center for creative photography. These partnerships will ensure that davids historic work is shared with the University Community and beyond to provide a unique perspective on history that helps create greater insight of iconic events. So without further ado, i want to thank you again for being here tonight, and i hope that through tonights presentation you will see how photography can help see a different perspective to create insight, open up dialogue and invoke a greater understanding of some of the most important cultural and political issues of our time. Thank you. [ applause ] for more than 50 years David Hume Kennerly has documented history with his camera, his singular perspective and relentless determination have helped kennerally create unforgettable images of the powerful and the powerless alike. The David Hume Kennerly archive is unparalleled for his depth and breath ask it takes a look at history in the making, the people who made it and some of the important events of our time. It all started with a cat. Our family cat. I took a picture of her when i was 10 years old. That early photo got me excited about what was goicapturing wha on around me. I was always dreaming of being somewhere other than where i was at the moment. Howard feinman, former newsweek chief Political Correspondent says kennerly is as good as it gets in a craft that he defined. I was in saigon when i got headquarters, kennerly won a Pulitzer Prize for photography and in typical fashion, need soonest comment. Vietnam was the biggest story of my generation. I felt an obligation to document the story that was killing so many of us. Every frame i took in vietnam went straight to my heart. Im proud to be a photographer, and im fortunate to be one who went into war and came out alive. When i got back to vietnam, watergate was the big story. I took a picture of gerald r. Ford that ended up on the cover of time after nixon picked him to replace Vice President agnew who had resigned. That led directly to me becoming the chief White House Photographer. Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said ken earlys work is more than just photography. Its history. People ask if theres any world event that i regret not shooting. Of course, everything i missed, but it wasnt much. Every photographer, no matter what they do, provide a service and that is to give insight into who we are, and what makes us tick. We will fand those secrets in the photographs. Ancell adams said kennerly puts forth that photography as a language, can speak truth. Journalists, photographers are the people who keep us informed. Were the truth it willers. My job is to show people what they dont want to see and its how they find out whats real. Photo is one that makes you sit up and pay attention. There are certain pictures that you see that never go out of your mind. Im going to keep shooting until the day i die. I will never stop being curious and i will never put down my camera. music ladies and gentlemen, please welcome jon meacham and David Hume Kennerly. applause after that, we dont have to do anything else. Welcome to the only funeral i have ever been to where the corpse is still breathing. David and i laughs are both the episcopalian we are two of the last six in america. This is our first bar mitzvah. This is going to laughs be a remarkable evening. There are a lot of folks who are known by one name. Cher, bono, madonna. Then there are some who have three names. Lisa marie presley. J edgar hoover. And David Hume Kennerly. It requires the three names to capture the greatness of the man who is sitting with us tonight. applause david thank you. I am honored to be here. I was davids editor like a being that Radar Operator of pearl harbor. He was an laughs uncontrollable force. A dear friend and an even longerterm admirer. This will surprise some of you i was an odd child. Odd child magazine. Covers i remember his Time Magazine covers from long ago. He bumped Matthew Brady out of the way to get that lincoln shot. There is nobody better at doing what david does and the remarkable thing is in many ways, he invented the genre of which he is the master which is that of being in the room. David thank you. Jon now we will sing a hymn for laughs our funeral. David you might wonder why my archive is here. Jon tell us why we are here. David the university of Arizona Center for creative photography is the Perfect Place for i think, and by the way i want to thank rebecca kennerly, my wife without whom this would not have happened. My three sons are here one of them was playing the violin on stage. He end also did the music for the video that you saw. Compose, played and the other two boys are here. They all missed out on a Great University im sorry they didnt go here. Thats how it goes. The reason i take pictures are so people can see them. Thats the whole point for me. Its important for students and historians to have access to these photographs. Im going to slide this forward. In the creative record, if we didnt have photographs, and history from the start of photography of the early 1800s, we know so much more because of them. I think i should talk about my first big record creating thing. I could have been a student here. 19 years old covering Robert Kennedys trip to portland, oregon. This is my first major assignment i worked for the oregon journal. I was given the assignment to cover kennedy come in a 1966 and he was in a labor hall and it was jampacked and i couldnt get in the room. That was going to be a real problem because you being an editor dont like coming people coming back saying i didnt get the story. So i panicked, but i saw this photographer sitting at the edge of the crowd and he was traveling with kennedy and he must have sensed my desperation. I said how do you get to the crowd . He said hang on to make it. He sliced through the crowd and he got to this place. This is where i am. With Robert Kennedy. He said this is where you going to get your best shot. You see the crowd, the candidate. This is the angle i had. In a closer upshot from the same spot, to this day these photos stand up for me. What happened after this, it affected my life in a profound way. Followed the motorcade at the portland airport, there was a d. C. Three on the tarmac with the prepared propellers twisting and it was Robert Kennedys plane. The photographer of life magazine went in, the door closed and the plane took off. I have never had a feeling like that. I wanted to be on that plane and see where he was going to go how do you follow history that was a huge thing for me. Huge thing for me. Jon so you were in the room from 1966 to 1968 which is more than half century ago. That began to shape everything after. 1968 is in many ways the beginning of the era in which we live. David two years later, i got on that plane and this photograph here was taken by a local photographer. It is right here in tucson. Kennedy came in from new mexico to here to give a speech than it was here in centennial hall. There were two locations for that then he went to window rock where he visited eight navajo reservation. I was with him and this is me taking a photograph of him getting off of the plane with ethel kennedy. We figured it was march 29. Jon it was friday, march 29, 1968 which i could argue is the beginning of the most significant week of the modern era. Rfk is here with kennerly. Lyndon johnson gets out of the race to this later. Martin luther king delivered his final sunday sermon at washington Nasa National cathedral. Then he was shot in memphis. Bobby puts on his brothers overcoat and announces the death to that crowd in indianapolis. In almost every conceivable way, you have the end of an old democratic order, the murder of dr. King, and the hope that was bobby kennedy. Bobby kennedy. David two months later, i was working for upi in los angeles and i was at the Ambassador Hotel with Robert Kennedy. If you minutes before that, i was upstairs and i talked to Robert Kennedy and he was being interviewed. Another was up there also. Then, i went downstairs to cover you can talk about what happened there. He lost oregon. He won in california. Jon he only got in the race a few you weeks before he came here. Jim mccarthy is the one who gets the credit for bringing bobby into the race because johnson was weak. Mccarthy surprises lbj in new hampshire. Bobby gets in. His last words which you heard were its on to chicago and lets win there. He didnt know if he could get the delegates against humphrey. David this is essentially last picture of Robert Kennedy alive. He gave a little quick v sign and went into the kitchen when he was shot. Made an incredible photograph. One of my colleagues was with him also. I heard that something had happened so i ran outside and i saw ethel in the back of the ambulance. I took this photo through the ambulance door. It was shocking to me what had happened. It was clear i didnt see the senator after that. This picture really made me feel bad. It was 21 years old when i did it and it was the idea of intruding on someones grief like that. Thats not something i like to do or i dont think anybody does what i did it. Many years later, i asked mrs. Kennedy, i told ethel how bad i felt she said dont worry, you were doing your job. She understood. Those people had lived in the public life forever. 50 years after this day, the family invited me to be at the graveside with them to celebrate the life of Robert Kennedy on the day of his death. This is the picture i took of ethel. You can see, being a photographer is about getting through the veneer of peoples souls. She had lived through so much. I caught this one moment and the sadness is evident. Our our theme and the hallmark of your career has been being in the room. What does that mean . David it means to me that i am the other person at a place where history says i will give you an example, when george bush meets gerald r. Ford and they talk about him possibly becoming the Vice President of the United States. Bush was the rnc chairman at a rough time. I was in there and history says the two men met privately and that was it but i was the third person. To me, this is like being a photographer or it means never repeating stories. Having the trust of the subject not talking about what you hear. President ford once said my gravestone should read here lies the worst source of washington. They trusted me. In the room also means in the theater of war. Its like a big idea of being in the room. My whole life has been trying traveling trend to get intimate moments or big moments. I think one of the remarkable things about what you have done is, you were in that room with george h. W. Bush and gerald r. Ford. George w. Bush was that a keg thats the pinnacle of power a man who becomes cia director. Party back then. David jon jon that was the highest point in our system. Yet you went to the places where the decisions made in those rooms had reallife implications. David thats right. John and i worked together in newsweek and this was my first cover which really killed my relationship with bob dole. As you remember well. When i first met john, i was meeting with the editor of newsweek who was in 1995 wanting me to work for the magazine and cover the campaign. Jon meacham walks and and Maynard Parker said i would like you to meet jon meacham our nation editor. I thought he was an intern taking coffee orders. He was 25 or 26 years old. You have probably been carded most of your life. Jon i have a bit of hair dye now. I tried to use that. David at least people have not referred to you as this photo is one of the first we ended up with a fantastic relationship. He is the guy relationship. He is the guy who was picking the pictures that i was taking. Jon with the bob dole picture and the bill clinton picture, when youre the guy receiving these images in washington, its a threepronged test. You have to have the image, the words, and the ethos all have to wind up. I would say this behind his back, no one ever produced what we needed better than david did. The bob dole cover was at a particularly glum moment in his early campaign. He would call to complain and you knew who it was because he referred to himself as bob dole. Bob dole is mad. Sorry, senator. Then, bill clinton this is little rock area it jon yes david yes little rock election night. Bob dole was shaken by the cover because it said doubts about dole. He was dropping in on former president bush and governor bush and they were sitting together and he pointed at me and said David Kennerly just about cost me five points in the polls. He was really mad. Jon you need the marriage, what percentage of your photographs have been published . David i would say maybe. 1 of my pictures. The incredible things about having the archive. People can go back and look at the pictures that have hopefully they will be scanned online. The context of all of these other people in the room, thousands and thousands of pictures that you have never seen any good chance to go back and say well theres dick cheney when he was chief of staff of staff of the white house. Before he became darth vader. It jon he had most of his own body parts then. Jon i envy what the center for creative photography has here. This is the raw material of what people like me do. Its more valuable in many ways than oral history or some of the documents because you can actually, people like me spend time trying to recreate what a scene looks like. Imagine a world which you now have here where you can go see what it where you can go see what it looked like. And the raw material of that, imagine if we had david tried to shoot the Constitutional Convention credentialed. David they would let me in. Jon imagine having the photographs of that. Thats what this is so much about. The arc of the Clinton Presidency is absolutely clear. David little rock after he won the second election, they were watching photographs. Television. He had gotten through his difficulties and this was the lead picture of newsweek area the the next photographic goes directly this is after the

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