Shooter

by David Hume Kennerly

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War, photojournalist David Kennerly documents his efforts to capture on film the events that have changed history and provides examples of his photographs of wars, natural disasters, and world leaders

Genres: Nonfiction, Photography

269 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1979

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Kennerly is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Shooter is a biography that covers the first thirty years of his life. It's not a straight biography though. Other than a few personal moments, it's mostly about where and how he took photographs . He started young, first shooting for his school newspaper. It wasn't long before he was a photographer at a local newspaper before going national and working for Time and Life. He won the Pulitzer for a series of photographs on the Vietnam war.

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As a photographer, it's interesting to see how he his photography led to almost every decison he made before the age of thirty. He liked Life magazine, and his admiration of it's photographers led to eventually working for them. He was bored working with politicians, so he requested a transfer to Vietnam where he spent time in and out of combat zones documenting what was going on.

The most interesting part is exactly what he would do to get a shot he thought was worth taking. He's drive through war zones on a jeep, sneak around guards to get someone famous, and listen in on Secret Service radios to get a good picture of Robert Kennedy. Most of the time spent in Vietnam almost sounds like he was the Indiana Jones of photography, it's all very exciting.

It does slow down when he becomes the official photographer for President Ford. Not that the photos are any worse, it just got a little monotonous reading about what good friends they were and how much fun it was to have 24/7 access to the Ford family. It's a real lull in the action as well just being not as fun to read.

This is only about a quarter of the book though, and it isn't enought to bring the book down. It also includes sections of photographs from each period of work. These are very intersting, I love seeing what people can accomplish with equipment that was being dragged through rice paddies and on helicopters.

[Brian Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Shooter, a title that is now sadly very much out of favor, David Kennerly recounts his remarkable career as a photojournalist from inception to about 1979, the publication date. Kennerly made a name for himself during the late phase of the American involvement in Vietnam, winning a Pulitzer Prize. He worked for UPI, Life, and Time plus a detour as President Ford’s personal White House photographer. Kennerly was (and – is – for that matter) a very determined, courageous, and dedicated photojournalist. As he noted about one experience in Vietnam, “There was no way to keep dry, and I was constantly soaked to the skin, covered with leeches, and utterly miserable. Good photos were the only reward.” (p. 58) His memoir is pretty much a straight accounting of his experiences photographing, with little personal color or big picture awareness: “It had somehow never occurred to me that the V. C. lived in regular villages and had wives and children.” (p. 100) That seems an honest and frank admission of someone nearly obsessed with getting pictures at all cost, a trait that came in handy when he was on the ground at Jonestown, wandering amongst the hundreds of three-day-old corpses. Overall this is a good book to know about Kennerly, and not so much about photojournalism itself; and it’s a splendid, almost mandatory, accompaniment to his large format, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford, that showcases his ground-breaking work that wasn’t matched until Pete Souza came along.

[Thomas.harrop · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books is about one of the top photojournalists of all time. Kennerly photographed in the Whitehouse and on the battlefield. A very compelling read.

[JW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the first photojournalism book I read. Loved his story and images. This influenced me to continue with photography and explore other photojournalism books.

[Rebecca Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Kennerly had an amazing career!

[Dale Shirt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kennerly is an object lesson in gumption and risk taking and living an inspired life. Plus I received some history lessons too.