The Center for Creative Photography will be organizing three free exhibitions to recognize the decades of photography renowned journalist David Hume Kennerly has produced over his career.
Kennerly has worked in photojournalism for over 50 years. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography at age 25 and then became the chief White House photographer under President Gerald Ford in 1974.
According to center’s website, According to the center’s website, Kennerly was appointed as the first University of Arizona Presidential Scholar, which is an honorary appointment based at the CCP that “exemplifies the university’s commitment to advancing the meaning and understanding of interdisciplinary work in the arts, humanities and social sciences.”
There will be towers of Kennerly’s photos on the UA Mall and an exhibition of some of Kennerly’s most well-known photos at Old Main. Additonally, Kennerly and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jon Meacham will hold a discussion about the effect of photography in people’s lives, according to Gina Compitello, the senior marketing and public relations officer for the center.
Compitello said that the photo towers at the UA Mall will be organized by themes of Kennerly’s work, such as presidential campaigns he’s covered.
According to Compitello, the photo towers will be up from Friday, Oct. 11 to Monday, Oct. 14. and will sometimes be moved around due to various Family Weekend events, such as tailgates, but will mainly stay by Old Main.
“I think it is going to be really incredible for people to be able to walk amongst his photos and kind of understand the work a photographer can do,” Compitello said.
According to Compitello, the Old Main exhibition will be open staring Friday, Oct. 11 and will be ongoing. It will have some of Kennerly’s most well-known photos on display in Old Main’s halls.
“Old Main is just a great overview of Kennerly’s work, and you can walk through and learn about each photo and see these moments that he was there for,” Compitello said.
Compitello said that the event with Kennerly and Meacham at Centennial Hall will be one night only on Friday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. She said that the event is free, but tickets still need to be picked up to go to the event.
“The two of them are having this conversation on stage about what photography means to our lives,” Compitello said. “So exploring the impact of photography on our world and how it helps us understand things, because many people — I mean, for many of us now — the way we understand what’s happening in the world is we see photos of it.”
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Compitello said the center chose Family Weekend to open the exhibition so that Kennerly’s work could be shown to a maximum number of people.
“Really, it’s that we want as many students and their families to have access to it as possible,” Compitello said. “And so scheduling it over something like Family Weekend means that more people can come and especially since all of it is free.”
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