“MY CAMERA HAS BEEN MY MAGIC CARPET”: KENNERLY’S PHOTO OP, FIRST EDITION

KENNERLY, David Hume. Photo Op. Austin: University of Texas Press, (1995). Square quarto, original blue cloth, photographic endpapers, original photographic dust jacket. $250.

First edition, featuring well over a hundred photographs, from the library of noted photographer Peter Turnley.

In over 150 photograph-filled pages, Kennerly—who won the Pulitzer in 1972 for his portfolio of Vietnam photography and who served as the official White House Photographer, with virtually unprecedented total access, during the Ford administration—reminisces about his lengthy, and remarkable career. Among the many historic and dramatic events that Kennerly has covered are the last days of the Watergate scandal, the Camp David accords and the mass murder/suicide at Jonestown, Guyana—what Kennerly remembers as a “dark day in that little corner of hell.” From the collection of noted photographer Peter Turnley, who is also mentioned within as Kennerly recalls an anecdote about Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev during the two leaders’ 1985 Geneva summit (pages 128, 130). Turnley has covered “almost every important international news event of the last 15 years” as a leading photographer for Life and Newsweek, and as contributing editor for Harper’s” (New York Times).

Minor rubbing to edges of dust jacket. A fine copy.