The David Hume Kennerly Archive

"The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona is the pinnacle of photographic institutions. Their dynamic leadership values the importance of images, and they are committed to incorporating them into the wider curriculum at the university. Having my archive join the work of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and so many other great photographers at the CCP is hands-down one of the most exciting and satisfying moments of my life!"

David Hume Kennerly

The Kennerly Archive will allow students and community members to engage with one of the most important archives of photojournalism to come out of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Audiences will be invited to use these photographs as a tool to educate and expand our conversation about history, truth, and storytelling in today’s society. The Kennerly Archive will be activated in ways that foster interdisciplinary conversations and scholarship, allowing for the contextualization of images to encourage visual literacy and a greater understanding of our society. Kennerly’s work illustrates how photography impacts movements, politics, social justice and public consciousness. The archive will become a key element of the Center for Creative Photography’s interdisciplinary learning offerings across campus disciplines as well as locally, nationally, and globally. Because David Hume Kennerly remains a working photographer, the Center has the unique opportunity to engage the community in discourse and inquiry around the most current events and conversations of our time.  

The David Hume Kennerly Archive contains more than a million objects relating to Kennerly’s career as a photojournalist and artist. The vast array of materials include photographs, contact sheets, negatives, books, periodicals, correspondence, project files, digital records, and more. The David Hume Kennerly collection is open for research by appointment, and the finding aid is available online. 

More information about all of the archives held at CCP, as well as how to schedule an appointment can be found on the Research section of CCP’s main website.