In my Advanced Photojournalism class at The University of Texas at Austin, the first exercise I assigned the students was a lesson in "Seeing the Picture." We used the multimedia story by photographer Sam Abell from the June issue of The Digital Journalist as a resource. Their assignment was to use only one camera and one lens, a wide angle, to shoot some pictures. This lesson emphasized making choices in composition and capturing the moment. I wish that we had a copy of David Hume Kennerly's Photo Du Jour available for the class back in September because that exercise is exactly what Kennerly assigned himself for an entire year.

Kennerly is a major force in photojournalism. He is known as a master of access.
His specialty is persuading presidents and kings to allow him to get inside their world. Part of his success is due in no small part to the effortless way in which he works. It seems as though photography with David is no big deal. This is an illusion that he has carefully crafted. In reality those intimate moments with some of the most powerful people on earth are the result of a lot of very hard work. In his address book he carries not only contact numbers, but birthdays, and will religiously send cards to the people he has photographed from locations all over the world.

Many people admire this Pulitzer Prize winner's journalistic skills and know-how, but few would consider him an artist. Yet, in 1999 he began to make plans to undertake an ambitious project that would require him to document his world as it was moving into a new century and make a commitment to take at least one picture every day for 365 days. To make these photographs different from the thousands of images he would produce on assignments throughout the year, he decided that the pictures he would shoot for the project would all be taken with one a camera. He chose a big format Mamiya 6x7, with only one lens, a wide angle approximating the field of view of a 21mm lens on a 35mm. The entire project was captured with black and white film.

Even for David this was a daunting proposal. To make things even more difficult, halfway through his project he was bedridden for over a week following knee surgery. He actually took pictures from his bed in Santa Monica. He photographed from planes as he shuttled around the world. Children and friends became his subjects for the project in addition to documenting the political campaigns of 2000.

The result is a striking book, which appeared in bookstores last month. A huge exhibition of photographs from the book opened at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. in conjunction with The Center for American History at the University of Texas.

By forcing himself to use only one camera and one lens, David's work suddenly became far more disciplined photographically. In fact he has become an artist.

We are proud to present David's 365-day project, accompanied by his commentary through streaming video in this month's issue.

© Dirck Halstead
Editor
The Digital Journalist