Category Archives: Guest Speakers

Hi folks – and welcome back to another exciting year at WKU! We just want everyone to know that we will have our annual photojournalist majors meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 8:00 pm in MMTH rm 166 (Auditorium). If you are a new student here at Western and you are seeking photojournalism as a degree you should definitely attend this meeting. If you are undecided and you think photojournalism might be for you then you should attend this meeting. If you are a grizzled veteran of this program you should attend this meeting. As always, we have MARVELOUS door prizes and we might even be done before 10 pm!

The School of Journalism and Broadcasting, through the generous contribution of Canon Inc., is bringing in internationally acclaimed photographer David Hume Kennerly on Wednesday, March 17, to give a presentation about his work and career that has spanned four decades. The presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Mass Media and Technology Hall auditorium. This is free and open to everyone, faculty, staff, and students, and anyone else you would like to invite!

James Earl Jones said, “David Hume Kennerly is like Forrest Gump, except he was really there.”

Kennerly has been shooting on the front lines of history for more than 40 years. He has photographed eight wars, as many U.S. presidents, and he has traveled to dozens of countries along the way. At 25, the Roseburg, Oregon, native won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of the Vietnam War, and two years later was appointed President Gerald R. Ford¹s personal photographer. He has been presented with numerous other honors, among them the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award for “Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad,” for his coverage of Reagan and Gorbachev¹s historic first summit meeting in Geneva. He was named, “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine.

Kennerly was nominated for a Primetime Emmy as executive producer of NBC’s, “The Taking of Flight 847,” and was writer and Executive Producer of a two-hour NBC pilot, “Shooter,” starring Helen Hunt, based on his Vietnam experiences. “Shooter” won the Emmy for “Outstanding Cinematography.” He is executive producer of the recent documentary, “Portraits of a Lady,” starring former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, which made the short list of films eligible for the 2008 Academy Award nominations.

Kennerly has been on the masthead of Time magazine, John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s George magazine, Life Magazine, and was a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine for 10 years. He has more than 50 major magazine covers to his credit. He has published several books of his work: “Shooter,” “Photo Op,” “Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld,” “Photo du Jour,” and “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford.” Most recently he produced “Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book,” with Bob McNeely, who was President Clinton’s official White House photographer. He also provided someexclusive behind-the-scenes photographs of President Obama for the project.

An exhibition of photographs from the book was mounted in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., that was seen by more than a million people.

Kennerly is on the Board of Trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation and the Atlanta Board of Visitors of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). His archive is housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas, Austin. He recently directed a commercial starring former mayor Ed Koch shot for New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Kennerly has started The Kennerly Institute, in conjunction with the USC Annenberg Center for Communication & Policy. It will run from June 20-25 at the USC campus in Los Angeles.

Gregory Heisler, us a New York-based photographer who is renowned for his technical mastery and thoughtful responsiveness. His enthusiasm, curiosity, and drive are manifested in his hands-on approach to all aspects of the image making process.

His iconic portraits and innovative essays have often graced the covers and pages of many magazines, including Time, Life, Geo, Sports Illustrated and The New York Times Magazine. He has also photographed advertising campaigns for clients such as American Express, Merrill Lynch and Nike.

Heisler will be speaking at Mass Media and Technology Hall at Western Kentucky University on Thursday April 9th at 8:30pm. He is sponsored by Canon USA.

David Stephenson, a WKU photojournalism graduate, spoke to the Photojournalism Projects class on Thursday, February 19. Stephenson, last years POYi winner of the best multimedia project, shared his knowledge and expertise of a working photojournalist at the Lexington Herald-Leader. He also spent a great deal of time discussing the pros and cons of Canon’s 5D MarkII camera. He presented his latest project, Road to Recovery, to the two classes.

Photo by Tim Broekema

The Western Kentucky University School of Journalism & Broadcasting is pleased to present the 2009 Gaines Lecture, “World in Conflict” by Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Rick Loomis. He will be presenting his work to the public Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 7:30 pm at Mass Media and Technology Hall auditorium. Admission is free.

Rick Loomis is a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times where he has worked since graduating from Western Kentucky University in 1994. He served as an embedded photojournalist during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Haiti, Israel and Palestine. In 2007, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his work on a five part series, Altered Oceans, which delved into the ills of the world’s oceans.

The National Press Photographers Association recognized Loomis as Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 2003. Also in 2003 and 2004, The California Press Photographers Association acknowledged him as Photographer of the Year.

Before joining the Times, Loomis completed internships at the News-Sentinel (Ft. Wayne, In.), the Gazette (Colorado Springs, Co.), the Seattle Times and the Syracuse newspapers.

The Gaines Lecture Series began in 2004 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of The Park City Daily News, the local newspaper owned by the Gaines family of Bowling Green. For more information contact the Chair of the Gaines Lecture Series, Jeanine Howard-Cherry at (270) 745-8921 or jeanine.cherry@wku.edu.

Photo by Rick Loomis/LA Times