In the University Library Gallery, students will be able to travel back in time through David Hume Kennerly’s photography, which covers events from 1966 all the way to President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Kennerly’s exhibit, “Capturing History: David Hume Kennerly,” will display a range of photographs, including events such as the Vietnam War and Obama’s inauguration.

Kennerly, the official White House photographer, considers himself to be a documentary and political photographer. He’s had many accomplishments through the years, including winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his Vietnam War photographs, serving as President Gerald Ford’s White House photographer and photographing many covers for Time and Newsweek.

Phil Hitchcock, University Library Gallery director, has known Kennerly for more than 40 years.

“David is without a doubt the most recognized photojournalist in the last three or four decades,” Hitchcock said.

Stephanie Nemeth, junior art history major and an intern at the gallery, said Kennerly’s exhibit is a retrospective of his career.

“He’s been photographing for over 40 years and he has thousands, I mean, I think almost a million photographs in his archive. It’s a very small show, but we picked what we felt was a good representation of his work, and to give the audience and the viewers a good idea of what he does,” she said.

Hitchcock mentioned that this type of exhibition is not seen in many places.

“This collection is out of the archives of the University of Texas, who holds all of his archives,” he said, referring to Kennerly’s photographs. “The Obama ones have never been seen and we printed and published those on campus.”

Kennerly’s inspiration comes from photographers such as Larry Burrows and Joseph Rosenthal. He also gets his inspiration from people who have had an impact in the lives of others.

“People like Barack Obama and Gerald Ford,” Kennerly explained. “And the effect they’ve had in the world.”

Many look at Kennerly’s photography and become so mesmerized by the images themselves that they tend to forget the risks he took in order to capture that particular moment. Kennerly said one of his biggest accomplishments as a working photographer has been staying alive.

“I’ve been in seven different wars. I’ve had a lot of close calls in my career,” he said. “I think I’ve been very lucky to stay away from death.”

Another major accomplishment for Kennerly is his ability to document America’s history. He has traveled to more than 130 countries, including Cambodia, the Philippines, China and Guyana. Some of his most memorable experiences include his trip to Israel with the president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, and when President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev first met in 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Those were two instances where I got a lot of photos, but I got to take history,” Kennerly said.

Hitchcock said Kennerly’s photography is very sensitive.

“He’s been able to capture with a photograph a kind of essence of that time of history,” Hitchcock said. “I think if you look at his one here, Easter Sunday of a GI sitting on top of a tank with his head in his hands, it pretty much captures the feeling of it. He captures history and history is emotions.”

Cindi Shimkus, junior photography major, also noticed the Easter Sunday photo.

“There’s one over there that’s amazing,” Shimkus said, turning around to look at the photograph. “It’s Easter Sunday and you can see this guy just – you can see his face and you can tell everything. It’s hot, he’s dirty, the war is going on still even though it’s a holiday, but they don’t just stop for the holiday.”

Shimkus said she likes how Kennerly’s work touches on the senses.

“Some people take pictures and it’s just another picture. (With) his you feel like you’re there. You can feel everything all around,” she said.

Kennerly’s photography has the ability to trigger many personal emotions.

Ana Quinonez, junior Spanish major, said she feels happy when she looks at the Obama pictures.

“It’s pretty cheesy, but some of the photos make you smile,” Quinonez said.

Nemeth, who also discussed Obama’s photographs, said the ones taken of the president recently give her a sense of pride. She said her favorite picture from the collection at the gallery is one that shows the back of Obama’s head when he’s saluting.

“It’s just something that you would never think to photograph – the back of a person’s head, but I think it’s very powerful.” Nemeth said. “As far as the other ones,” she explained, while referring to the pictures of events that occurred before she was born, “because the photographs are so good, it kind of makes me, I don’t know the word to describe it, but it’s just like being there almost.”

Nemeth said she thinks Kennerly’s photography is incredible.

“He’s a photojournalist but also an artist. He takes brilliant photographs and I think people are really going to like it. I really like it,” she said.

Kennerly thinks the University Library Gallery is a great venue to meet students and to talk about his work.

“I think it’s an honor having people wanting to show my work,” he said.

His advice to aspiring student photographers is to take a lot of photographs and be very diligent about it as a career.

“There’s no simple formula for it,” he said. “The desire for it is the single most important element.”

David Hume Kennerly’s photos will be displayed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays from March 13 to June 27 at the University Library Gallery.

Christina Li can be reached at [email protected]