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tv   Documenting History Through Photography  CSPAN  November 16, 2019 1:59pm-3:49pm EST

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national cemetery. former obama administration andonal security advisor u.n. ambassador susan rice her life and career. on the westborough baptist church. on liberalism and andy greenberg discusses russian 24,ers on sunday, november at 10:30 a.m. eastern. our live coverage continues with undersecretary of state in the obama administration, on proliferation of disinformation and international politics. david mayernis on the 1950's, scare. former deputy director of the c.i.a.'s counterterrorism center, phillip mudd, talks about the state of c.i.a. detention centers. and former professional football player don mcpherson on toxic masculinity. miamilive coverage of the book fair november 23 and
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2's book24, on c-span tv. + next, pulitzer prize-winning photographer talks with a 15torian about his more than year long photography career. time ase topics, his president gerald ford's chief photographer. the center for creative photography at the university of arizona and bank of america hosted this event. >> thank you all for coming here. it is a thrill to see you here. said, i am thrilled to be leading arizona arts.
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the core of our mission in arizona arts is to ensure that all students regardless of major have meaningful experiences and the archive will further that andion by engaging impacting students across our university and transforming ways. the acquisition of this archive is a prime example of our commitment to integrating the arts into all aspects of the university experience and to making the university of arizona a true arts destination areas tonight, we are in for such a treat as we hear from two pulitzer prize winners. this evening is only the beginning as dr. robin said, looking ahead, david will photography --h faculty and arts, behavioral sciences, and others from across our campus. to activate this archive as a
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resource for student learning and research. i am deeply proud that the center for creative photography is going to be home for this archive. i especially want to extend my gratitude to any breckenridge -- director of the center for all of her work. [applause] for making this center the jewel in the crown of what we imagine arizona arts to be. remarkable event would not be possible without the support of our presenting sponsor, bank of america. i was like to ask you to help me in welcoming the tucson market president bank of america. thank you very much.
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>> thank you. it is my pleasure to welcome and thank you for being with us tonight. i like to thank the university of arizona and the center of creative photography for their hard work -- hard work and partnership. at bank of america, we asked the question what would you like the power to do? hear is towe often build strong and thriving communities. it is exciting to hear about this partnership that the university of arizona has developed with the arts and with david hume kennerly. we believe in the power of the ,rts to help economies thrive educate and in which societies, and create greater cultural understanding. to embrace ander appreciate people's background, culture, heritage, and
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experiences which help to strengthen communities. tonight, david hume kennerly and jon meacham will highlight some of the most important cultural and political issues of our time. will -- together, they discuss the importance of photography in culture, and the way it bears witness, helps us understand complex issues, evokes emotion, and leads to a greater knowledge of our world. i am proud to support and celebrate the great partnership bank of america has david. he has been a longtime partner not only working with our senior executives and board of directors but he has also traveled around the united states and to other countries covering our extensive social responsibility programs such as our global ambassadors program and our partnership with vital voices. partnership,enure david has created a vast archive for bank of america documents
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our corporate culture and among many other things, the photos underscore how we can conjure be jarred our local communities and the customers we serve. that workingme with us has been a great partnership in its own right. we also feel the same about him. it is for that reason that we are proud to sponsor this wonderful event. be extendingg to this partnership bank of america has with david to include the university of arizona and the center for creative photography. these partnerships will ensure that david historic work is shared with the university community and beyond to provide a unique perspective on history that helps create greater insight of iconic events. without further ado, i want to thank you again for being here tonight and i hope that through tonight's presentation, you will see how photography can help see a different perspective to create insight, open up dialogue
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the cultural political issues of our time. thank you. [video] ♪ for more than 50 years, david hume kennerly has documented history with his camera. his singular perspective and relentless determination have helped kennerly create unforgettable images of the powerful and the powerless alike. the david hume kennerly archive is unparalleled for its depth and breadth. it takes a sweeping look at history in the making, the people who made it, and the most
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important events of our time. >> it all started with a cap. our family cat. i took a picture of her when i was 10 years old. that photo got me excited about the photo -- idea of capturing what was going on around me. i was always dreaming about being somewhere other than where i was at the moment. >> howard fineman, said david kennerly is as good as it gets in a craft he defined. ♪ i was in saigon when i got a telex. pulitzerhas won the
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prize for photography. in typical fashion, it added need comment. vietnam was the biggest story of my generation. document obligation to the story that was killing so many of us. vietnamame i took in went straight to my heart. photographer be a and i'm fortunate to be one who went into war and cannot alive. vietnam,t back from watergate was the big story. fordk a picture of gerald that ended up on the cover of time magazine after nick and pick 10 to replace vice president agnew had resigned. to me beingectly the chief white house retarder for. -- photographer.
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micawber bunch of said kennerly's work is more than just photography, it is history. is anyle ask if there world event that i regret not shooting. of course. everything i missed. it wasn't much. every photographer, no matter what they do, provide a service which is to give insight into who we are. and what makes us tick. you will find those secrets and the photographs. >> ansell adams said kennerly set forth a positive testimony that photography as a language can speak truth.
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>> journalists, photographers are the ones to keep us informed. are the truth tellers. my job is to show people what they don't want to see and it's how they find out what is real. a great photo is one that makes you set up and pay attention. there are certain pictures that you see that never go out of your mind. i'm going to keep shooting until the dad died. i will never stop being curious and i will never put down my camera.
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♪ ladies and gentlemen, please and davidn meacham hume kennerly. [applause] >> after that, we don't have to do anything else. [laughter] welcome to the only funeral i have ever been to where the corpse is still breathing. [laughter] david and i are both the episcopalian we are two of the last six in america. this is our first bar mitzvah.
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this is going to be a remarkable evening. folks who aret of known by one name. bono, madonna. then there are some who have three names. lisa marie presley. [laughter] j edgar hoover. and david hume kennerly. torequires the three names capture the greatness of the man who is sitting with us tonight. [applause] david: thank you. i am honored to be here. awas david's editor like being that radar operator of pearl harbor. he was an uncontrollable force. and an evend longer-term admirer.
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this will surprise some of you i was an audit child. [laughter] --odd child magazine., -- covers -- i remember his time magazine covers from long ago. he bumped matthew brady out of the way to get that lincoln shot. at doingnobody better what he does and the remarkable thing is in many ways, he invented the genre of which he is the master which is that of being in the room. david: thank you. now we will sing a hymn for our funeral. you might wonder why my archive is here. jon: tell us why we are here. david: the university of arizona center for creative photography is the perfect place for i think
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, and by the way i want to thank rebecca kennerly, my wife without whom this would not have happened. [applause] my three sons are here one of them was playing the violin on stage. [applause] he end [indiscernible] also did the music for the video that you saw. the otherlayed and two boys are here. [applause] they all missed out on a great university i'm sorry they didn't go here. that's how it goes. the reason i take pictures are so people can see them. that's the whole point for me. it's important for students and historians to have access to these photographs.
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i'm going to slide this forward. in the creative record, if we didn't have photographs, and history from the start of photography of the early 1800s, we know so much more because of them. myhink i should talk about first big record creating thing. i could have been a student here. roberts old covering kennedy's trip to portland, oregon. this is my first major assignment i worked for the oregon journal. i was given the assignment to cover kennedy come in a 1966 and he was in a labor hall and it was jampacked and i couldn't get in the room. that was going to be a real problem because you being an editor don't like coming -- people coming back saying i didn't get the story. so i panicked, but i saw this
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photographer sitting at the edge of the crowd and he was traveling with kennedy and he must have sensed my desperation. i said how do you get to the crowd? he said hang on to make it. through the crowd and he got to this place. this is where i am. with robert kennedy. he said this is where you going to get your best shot. you see the crowd, the candidate . this is the angle i had. in a closer upshot from the same these photo'sday stand up for me. what happened after this, it affected my life in a profound way. followed the motorcade at the portland airport, there was a d.c. three on the tarmac with the prepared -- propellers twisting and it was robert kennedy's plane.
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the photographer of life magazine went in, the door closed and the plane took off. i have never had a feeling like that. i wanted to be on that plane and see where he was going to go anywhere history goes. had he followed history? that was a huge thing for me. jon: so you were in the room from 1966 to 1968 which is more than half century ago. that began to shape everything after. 1968 is in many ways the beginning of the era in which we live. two years later, i got on that plane and this photograph here was taken by a local photographer. it is right here in tucson. kennedy came in from new mexico
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to hear to give a speech than it was here in centennial hall. there were two locations for that then he went to window rock where he visited eight never hope reservation. meas with him and this is taking a photograph of him getting off of the plane with ethel kennedy. we figured it was march 29. it was friday, march 29, 1968 which i could argue is the beginning of the most significant week of the modern era. rfk is here with kennerly. lyndon johnson gets out of the race to this later. king delivered his final sunday sermon at washington nasa -- national cathedral. then he was shot in memphis.
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bobby puts on his brother's overcoat and announces the death to that crowd in indianapolis. in almost every conceivable way, you have the end of an old democratic order, the murder of dr. king, and the hope that was bloody kennedy. -- bobby kennedy. two months later, i was working for upi in los angeles and i was at the ambassador hotel with robert kennedy. if you minutes before that, i was upstairs and i talked to robert kennedy and he was being interviewed. another was up there also. coveri went downstairs to -- you can talk about what happened there. he lost oregon.
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he won in california. jon: he only got in the race a few you weeks before he came here. jim mccarthy is the one who gets the credit for bringing bobby into the race because johnson was weak. surprises lbj in new hampshire. bobby gets in. heardst words which you were it's on to california -- chicago with when there. he didn't know if he could get the delegates against humphrey. this is essentially last picture of robert kennedy alive. he gave a little quick -- quick sign and went into the kitchen when he was shot. made an incredible photograph. one of my colleagues was with him also. i heard that something had happened so i ran outside and i saw ethel in the back of the ambulance.
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i took this photo through the ambulance door. it was shocking to me what had happened. it was clear i didn't see the senator after that. really made me feel bad. it was 21 years old when i did it and it was the idea of intruding on some reflect that. that's not something i like to do or i don't think anybody does what i did it. i asked mrs.ter, kennedy, i told ethel how bad i felt she said don't worry, you were doing your job. she understood. those people had lived in the public life forever. day, theafter this family invited me to be at the graveside with them to celebrate the life of robert kennedy on the day of his death. this is the picture i took of ethel.
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you can see, being a photographer is about getting through the veneer of people's souls. she had lived through so much. and the this one moment sadness is evident. >> our theme and the homework of your career has been being in the room. what does that mean? david: it means to me that i am the other person at a place where history says -- i will give you an example, when george and meets gerald r. ford they talk about him possibly becoming the vice president of the united states. the rnc chairman at a rough time.
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i was in there and history says the two men met privately and that was it but i was the third person. like being as photographer or -- it means never repeating stories. subjecthe trust of the not talking about what you hear. president ford once said my gravestone should read here lies the worst source of washington. they trusted me. in the room also means in the theater of war. idea of being in the room. my whole life has been trying -- traveling trend to get intimate moments or big moments. >> i think one of the remarkable things about what you have done is, you were in that room with
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george h.w. bush and gerald r. ford. we is to just call him george bush back then. david: george w. bush was that a keg party back then. that was the highest point in our system. yet you went to the places where the decisions made in those rooms had real-life implications. david: that's right. john and i worked together in newsweek and this was my first which really killed my relationship with bob dole. [laughter] as you remember well.
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was i first met john, i meeting with the editor of in 1995 wanting me to work for the magazine and cover the campaign. andmeacham walks and maynard parker said i would like you to meet jon meacham our nation editor. i thought he was an intern taking coffee orders. he was 25 or 26 years old. you have probably been carted most of your life. bit of hair dye now. i tried to use that. david: at least people have not referred to you as [indiscernible] [laughter] the first is one of we ended up with a fantastic
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relationship. he is the guy who was taking the pictures that i was taking. with the bob dole picture and the bill clinton picture, when you're the guy receiving these images in washington, it's a three-pronged test. you have to have the image, the all have tohe ethos wind up. i would say this behind his back, no one ever produced what we needed better than david did. ae bob dole cover was at particularly glum moment in his early campaign. he would call to complain and you knew who it was because he referred to himself as tall. [laughter] bob dole is mad. [laughter] sorry, senator.
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then, bill clinton -- this is little rock area it jon: yes -- david: yes little rock election night. bob dole was shaken by the cover because it said doubts. on formerpping in president bush and governor bush and they were sitting together and he pointed at me and said david kennerly just about cost me five points in the polls. [laughter] he was really mad. marriage, whathe percentage of your photographs have been published? say maybe .1% of my pictures.
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the incredible things about having the archive. people can go back and look at the pictures that have -- hopefully they will be scanned online. the context of all of these other people in the room, thousands and thousands of pictures that you have never seen any good chance to go back and say well there's dick cheney when he was chief of staff of staff of the white house. before he became darth vader. it [laughter] he had most of his own body parts then. [applause] center for what the creative photography has here. this is the raw material of what people like me do. it's more valuable in many ways than oral history or some of the
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documents because you can actually, people like me spend time trying to re-create what a scene looks like. imagine a world which you now have here where you can go see what it looked like. of the wrought material that, imagine if we had david tried to shoot the constitutional convention but couldn't get credentialed. [laughter] they would let me in. jon: imagine having the photographs of that. that's what this is so much about. the arc of the clinton presidency is absolutely clear. david: little rock after he won the second election, they were watching photographs. -- television. he had gotten through his difficulties and this was the
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lead picture of newsweek area the -- the next photographic goes -- this is after the monica lewinsky business. he said i don't think there's any fancy way to say that i have sinned. i love having print on my photos. suddenly you have the context. this is a powerful moment area bill clinton has made a statement in the east room. with a room full of ministers. we went from the subject to impeachment. this was right after he was impeached he came out with his first -- vice president and first lady. look whoteresting is
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is standing behind hillary. [laughter] why is larry david at the white house? [laughter] history springs forward. hillarynie ran against and that's one of the reasons she lost. he was a congressman and he was standing out there. then when bill clinton was tried in the senate, acquitted, a , you think why do they do that? this is the rose garden and he came out and made a statement after the acquittal. as a photographer, i'm not just looking for a close-up of bill clinton but i saw the shadow on the wall.
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these pictures don't happen by accident. well every now and then they do. generally not. let's talk about what photographs do. one of the important things they do is they reveal meaning. arguably quite essential moment of postwar hereics unfolded right probably about 11:15 a.m. or so on friday, august 9, 1974. cand: it was anything we show you a video, this is how i hopefully most of you weren't born yet. watch how fast this happens. just announcesho
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he resigned the presidency. i am on a press stand watching this whole thing. in my sequence of pictures which you see here, if you look at the lower left that is early in the role. when i saw next and i turned the camera like that in order to keep the flag in. it's funny i remember that moment. that's a big decision as a photographer. importantly, this is the first frame as he steps up. lookinge richard nixon at the white house, it's like right there. it's huge. the helicopter lands out there. maybe i am just projecting here but it seemed to me this is the moment of realization. i'm seeingef like
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this place for the last time. to date, he is the only president who has resigned the presidency. the photo that i always thought was a better one was this that after looking and studying these photos over the years, this is the classic. if you saw how fast the wave happened and the grim resolve of , to date this is one of the most stunning events i have ever covered. -- movingward, forward it looks like a campaign picture-perfect context is that the staff came out and they were likeuding then he did this a campaign rally, he was noted for this kind of thing. it wasn't a campaign rally it was one of the darkest moments in presidential history. what you all now have here is so important because you can go and find this. if you saw the video, that's the image people remember.
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cracked it's weird. it's published all the time. .hat was the story maybe everybody missed the first part of it. have the only photos of next and looking grim. >> there are other photos that exist of him looking grim. [laughter] >> yes there were. is vice president for waving goodbye. you can't see through the reflection but nixon is sitting in the helicopter. then, the next moment, the manth walk away and this who is going to be president of the united states and 45 minutes . i asked him later i said what rethinking about when you walked away? he said all i can think as i wanted to get in and start to work. this is such a moment for me and all of us. and went tont in
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the east room and gave one of the great inaugural addresses in american history talking about how we were a government of laws not of men and our long national nightmare was over. title tovided me the my book, extraordinary circumstances. he said i assume the presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by americans. the night he became president, he invited me to his house. was going to ask me to be his white house photographer. he never talked to anybody for fear of looking like he was going to push next and out and when i become president i'm going to get u.s. secretary of not you, henry you already are and you will stay. the brief history of white house photo operations, white house
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chief photographers -- before him was [indiscernible] who had unparalleled access. he took you into the oval office. he is a personal hero i have based my white house photo career on his. he would really get you on the room -- in the room. another came along with nixon and nick's and gave him no access at all. as someone who was ready to become the third civilian white house photographer, i sat on the couch with president ford in his little living room and alexandria. if they didn't move into the white house for another 10 days. likes smoking his pipe that picture and he asked me to be his white house photographer. i looked him right in the eye on two conditions. what i report directly to you and number two i have access to
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everything going on in the white house. i am 27 years old. [laughter] i have a kid from oregon. i was brought up with modest circumstances. pipe.t smoking his it was a shocking moment. he started laughing and he said you don't want air force one on the weekend? [laughter] and so i got the job. [laughter] then the next day, i am right in there. look at the into shells. all of next step is been taken out. you have a man who is comfortable and his own skin behind the desk. also, i am right there in the office with him. those go back to that for a second because it says a lot about your capacity to make people comfortable when you're around. secondly, it says a hell of a lot about gerald ford, his sense
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of confidence in himself. come follow me around i have nothing to hide. it was incredible and the ie thing about him, lbj believe his photography told me this, lbj did it out of a sense of vanity and wanting to be documented. it was a different motivation were president ford wanted to have me around. i became friends with the whole family. said don't runme that picture. think he cared about the pictures. could to pictures of him and his jam is or in the swimming pool. he never said don't use that. or i want to see it before you put it out. jon: you made him laugh also.
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david: yes. not always. he got mad at me one time. jon: the shooting story. him to daysasked later when the avalanche of negative publicity came out i said we were in an elevator i said i can't believe i said this [laughter] i said you think by pardoning nixon on a sunday morning that nobody would notice? [laughter] he got really mad at me. anyway, moving along. your training, subtlety , was not entirely in washington. you were at the front. >> i was at the front indeed.
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photos, we said they go to the heart of the story. in 1971.r vietnam it was a rare case. i joined the army, the national the basicd all training and all of that than i had to get out of the army to go to the war. they didn't do weekend meetings in saigon so luckily, i worked for a general who worked that out. . went to vietnam it was important for me to go. i couldn't be sitting here with you today making some excuse about why i didn't do it. four of my high school weremates from oregon killed in vietnam. i was the class photographer. i did the annual, the newspaper. these were guys i knew.
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i want to go see for myself what took them away and i wanted to upon people that came from decisions made by folks sitting halfway around the world. manley, i wanted to cover the story. since the first day at a to the camera, it has been admission of me to do that. these were all photos, briefly i wanted pulitzer prize for photographs that i took -- i won the pulitzer prize for photographs i took in cambodia, muhammadkistan and the ali frazier fight. this suggests also you were in danger you were under fire. was going the job into danger. you couldn't avoid it. sugar i dedicated
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to the photographers in vietnam. there were 17 of them. photographers have been killed in wars forever and it's part of the job. part of the job is not getting killed you can avoid it. i don't want to overstate this. >> then you come to something like this and it doesn't look like your classic war picture. >> it's not a war picture. it was taken and more several hundred charts from an active firefight. that was the -- vietnamese soldiers and cambodia. this photo believe it or not is my favorite photo of the pulitzer collection because it is a photo of optimism and resilience like life goes on. it goes to the core of who i am. despite all of the horrible things that i have seen and my colleagues have seen, i still in the better angels as
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you would put it. [applause] lincoln used it once. back tot ford sent you vietnam. falling inam was april, 1975, actually march. the north vietnamese had invaded. he was dispatching the army chief of staff who was a vietnam veteran to see if there was anything that can be done to stem the tide. i went with him and i did my own mission. this was one taken in cambodia. i saw people dying. they were surrounded by the khmer rouge. i went to vietnam and i was in a train when it was evacuating.
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these photographs can be taken today. this is going on right now somewhere. the turks are going after the kurds. chaos.graphed the loaded with troops coming into camp monday. -- cameron day. the ap said the president's photographer has been shot at and that's how my parents heard about it. they didn't know i was in vietnam but it was a secret trip allegedly. so my dad picked up the phone and call the white house and asked to be put through to the president and the operator said his this? he said i'm david kennerly's dad. i had a great relationship with the phone operator every christmas i would send them a
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case of wine. no one else did that. they just plugged my dad rented to the president. [laughter] he said don't worry about it he's on his way back. [laughter] back and the general gave his report to the president, i showed something that they had never seen and it was a personal photograph report about what was going on over there. i have pictures of people dying, the refugees, i had told them about the vietnamese friends of mine had asked me to take their kids out with me. they knew i was going to the states. the place was falling apart it was a really difficult situation. i was emotionally wrapped up with vietnam i had been there for two years. the president looked at my black said i wantotos and
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these up in the west wing of the white house and you have been over there. a remarkable thing. if you have not been in the west wing, one of the ways to , it's a veryhalls contained space. we have an image of presidents walking the halls of the white house and they say lincoln -- they see lincoln. not so much. what they see are pictures of themselves. they see pictures of the easter -- role or a parade or a stop somewhere. it is an enforced solecism. for president ford to use that real estate to put the attention is yet and not in word another testament to his character. it was and somebody, not knowing the president was involved in that decision, took the photos down that night.
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the president got very angry about it. he issued a proclamation to put the photos back up >>. >>this was a historic moment. you were in the room. that's the roosevelt room in the west wing. when at the national made a final decision to pull out. >> it's an ironic moment. i look at the portrait of teddy roosevelt who have been the charge the hill guy. nobody is talking but the president who just made a decision to commence withdrawing americans. what had also happened was a lot of his top advisers wanted just to get the americans out enough. >> talk about your mission in , and a future ambassador nsc guy had talked about the fate of refugees.
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i could not believe that there were people who didn't want vietnamese refugees to come out. involved with trying to convince the president which by the way didn't take much convincing that we needed to keep the doors, we need to evacuate the vietnamese and bring them in this was not a hard call for him. this is the most humane human being i have ever run into. kind of like our current president. [laughter] [applause] the pictures got to him. the plight of the refugees. 130,000s watch, over vietnamese came in. think of that. they have become great citizens of the country. their kids are some of the most productive people we have. it was because of president ford. it was one of those moments where photography, the power of photography became evident.
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important a hugely lesson historically and particularly in an academic setting. in an era where many people have declared war on facts and war on , whatevernt truths evidence can be presented that will compel us to open our arms more widely than we clench our fists is important. [applause] i have a very soft spot for president ford. his already been rediscovered in many ways. in the way truman and george h.w. bush have been. he was in many ways an eisenhower like figure. in a critical moment in our history. can you imagine if we had an egotistical, insecure [laughter]
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i know this is hard to believe. david: narcissistic. jon: the move from gerald ford to the incumbent disproves darwin. [laughter] [applause] we will move on. [laughter] let's move on to something equally cheerful. we're going to talk about mass suicide. jamestown 1978. the students will not remember this. the 1970's were a chaotic time. they start with charles manson and the murders. went intoaquarius violence. a lot of millennial movements, the late great planet earth. apocalyptic profits
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and one of them was jim jones who took people to ghana, put andide in a bucket to haved the parents their children drink this. leading to the most significant cult massacre. over, leoressman went ryan. he was one of the few assassinations in the history of congress. when he tried to break this up. was withs assistant him and was wounded down there. you get off the plane and that's what you see. david: it didn't happen just like that. getting there was a remote part of the jungle.
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we heard is that leo ryan had been killed. there were other people possibly involved. we didn't know, it wasn't like today or you can find out in an instant it's going on. story with time magazine we were doing a story on cocaine trafficking from columbia which ended up being a cover story. jet andered a drip -- managed to get to the area. the story was that there were troops being held off by these people and as we got closer and closer from our little plane, i saw all these people down around a pavilion. look there are hundreds of people down there but as we got closer, it became the shock of my life which was they were
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all dead. this was really, and i have been in a lot of combat everything from vietnam to name a war. nothing approach for that. nothing. the only living thing in --parrot was a parent and into your point little kids around. it does is the only story that ever gave me nightmares. that's hard to imagine. jon: that's how you come out of an experience like that? case, i came out of it like -- i still recall the one that i had we went on to columbia and it was there but i still remember the nightmare. unfortunately, -- fortunately
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that was in the past. i am really lucky and i appreciate people with ptsd. it could be anything. getting this to a car i don't know. car iting missed by a don't know. i'm very lucky. i have a lot of colleagues who that happened to. one of the many other roles to shape, tellis us not only about tragedy but to record triumph and inspire us. david: hoops there we go. someone called it the decisive moment. here, i didn't really get into it but ansell adams is a friend of mine. i did the only, you saw the cover in the film the picture of ansell adams which today is the
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only photographer who has been on the cover of time magazine. i got to know him we became friends. i was a teacher at one of his workshops in yosemite. there are all of these other great photographers. when i say the decisive moment, smith was one of those people. weston,avedon, edward they are all in different lanes. , iat with the collection would say gene smith is a photojournalist. richard avedon did great portraits. on and on. to be in the company of those people, it's overwhelming for me. category,isive moment i'm going to show you the film 1971hammad ali and fraser in madison square garden so you can see. you have to look fast.
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oh my gosh he's down. imagine trying to get a picture of that. that's the 15th round of the fight of the century. the photograph i took is here. [applause] this was one of my pulitzer prize photos. joe frazier, i've got to get a copy of this. joe had this blown up huge. in his living room. [laughter] somebody took a picture of him standing around like that like he's going to catch him. this is muhammad ali in midair. march 9, 1971 which happened to be my 24th birthday and the day i left for me to -- vietnam and to wake up and see this was to want to got didn't to vietnam i was like hang it up after that. jon: we're glad you didn't but we can see what you wanted to. time, let's talk about
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the world longest election night. you and i did this together more or less. we talked all through that night. you knew far more than most folks did david:. david:but i would never tell you anything. johnyou see the pictures -- way to the pictures john. jon: walk us through bush versus gore. hadd: this is when al gore called and conceded the election. night,g the count that it looked like bush was going to lose than it became even. i don't know what the time was, but every 10 minutes it was something else. it all boils down to florida. bush in this florida is looking over his speech to give the talk
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but then they are getting ready austin, texasis the governor's mansion. the guy on the right is don evans who was an old childhood friend of george w. bush who was his campaign manager. he just and on the phone with bill daley who was al gore's campaign chairman. they were running a little bit late. --jon: al over to the gore was going to the war memorial auditorium. in nashville. now, it is apparent that florida is starting to tighten up again. show, yes.o just flashing forward about 10 minutes after i took the picture, al gore called george bush and he rescinded the concession.
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but george bush took the call from the second floor of the governor's mansion. kitchen, it's not that big. i was getting a drink of water when bush comes down the back stairway. i'm the first person he sees after he talks to gore. he says to me, "he took it back." he said it twice. i said, "who took walk back -- took what back?" gore took back his concession. sucks.""that so he walks out, goes into this little room. of course i follow him.
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thanks to connie and her great team, they put together this stuff. this is the moment. this is the single most dramatic moment i have witnessed in my years doing politics. we will take a tour around through the faces. looking a little bit -- isyou look at her hand, that not someone who is relaxed.
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george w. bush is still in a state of shock. >> that's who i went over with. there were two other photographers. was going well. there was no one around to kick me out. on the right is his daughter and her partner. kind of the chief of staff for cheney on the campaign. cheney.er to dick he's a pretty cool customer.
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phone h w bush is on the and i made the mistake of asking, who was he talking to? said, "i think he was putting $50,000 on gore." this was a another pardon in the elevator moment. that was not funny. that was really unfunny. this is a man seeing his life pass before his eyes. jeb bush had been celebrating a victory and had two or three cocktails. he's very sober at this point.
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is going to lose the election for his brother. that gives you a tour of history in a still photograph. i know everything i know from ken burns. let's move ahead. that inan't always do one image. here is secretary clinton at the beginning of the journey. what is going on here? clinton, who was a 26-year-old lawyer on the impeachment committee. is nixon impeachment becoming a real thing. i've been there for two, i figure i will be there for number three.
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i may partial observer. if it was going to happen i will be there. we are going to see the evolution of hillary rodham clinton. this is hillary before she married bill clinton. a little bit different hairstyle and she lost her glasses. and then to 2001, this is .enator hillary clinton this is january 20, 2001. i love the picture and the bushes get along fine. , misses barbara bush referred to bill clinton as the back -- the black sheep of the bush family.
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>> she didn't like it when her sometimes call lynn -- call though clinton his brother from another mother. >> this is a photograph i did for politico magazine as she is running for president against bernie sanders and the incumbent. images help us understand events unfolding. we can see an hour of crisis. one of the reasons you went into forward you have gone is the complexity and the
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panoply of every kind of human condition, ups and downs and everything else. >> i've been very fortunate to do this. curious about being what are these people thinking? photograph ofthis john kerry and john mccain. both of them became the candidates of their party. opposites,olitical vietnam war veterans, friends. and one of the things mccain hed me was that he wished and carrie didn't end up running against each other. they had legitimate inferences of opinion. he said, we would like to travel the country and get off the
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airplane and meet each other. when was the last time that happened? >> lincoln, douglas. he's doing great work. we've never had a presidential do that. survived, he about -- he and barry goldwater had talked about doing that. >> they were both senators. >> they respected each other. here, when you look at justice and thenand ginsburg look at the dead white guys around them --
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[laughter] realize that yes, progress is possible. >> progress is possible. senator oh dale and i became friends. she was a mother who raised three boys and a conservative republican. she and ruth bader ginsburg were best of friends. this is kind of the equivalent of the carrie-mccain picture. president ford loved interacting with the press.
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he was one of the presidents who believed in the constitution and the first, second, third, fourth amendment. pressld interact with the . and a reporter from a little newspaper. him some always ask totally off-the-wall question. said --s secretary >> i just can't wait to hear what she is going to ask me. photograph, you see the clues of photos, film cameras and then a video. this is really a transitional moment in media. changedwhere everything to media coverage.
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1976. >> we are watching the press here. backe not just looking because of the power of photography, power of history, power of journalism has pushed forward. the ethos in which you have made your living is under assault beenin a way it has not since 1798 when john adams tried to outlaw the press. >> i bet trump didn't even know that. >> i think he thinks john adams is probably -- >> a beer.
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>> that was his brother sam. are both doing great work. >> talk about this. we have been called the enemy of the people. information which some people don't agree with. this a longn doing time. you have been on both sides. outside.en on the >> i would see president ford not ricochet off the walls. there is not one president who hasn't been unhappy about what has been written about him. it's really not that complicated.
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he would be complicated. i hate what he says. we go out there doing what we do. that was a first amendment right. you have no idea what is going on out there. newsweek never got it wrong. when i hear some of the
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attacking us as a group. us -- so deeply disturbing -- when david and i started working together, something is not quite right.
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>> and there she is. >> a formidable person. >> she was one who gave bravery a name. she went out and said women need .o her husband stood by her there. came out and established a betty ford center, countless lives,
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friends of mine have gone through there. house,t day at the white we walked by the empty room, which was the gallery of dead white guys. misses ford said, i always wanted to dance on the table. -- iecret service agents could see they didn't believe this. she had that certain mischievous look i had gotten to know in her eye. dancer.a martha graham she was incredibly agile. you never saw this picture before.
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she was planning this feminist flag. it was fun. the best of betty ford. >> one of the few constitutional .equirements about washington and adams both went to congress and gave a speech.
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jefferson was not a public speaker, so he moved it to a written document. no president until woodrow wilson began this process. by constitutional fiat the vice president of the united states , the only thing you do until you wait for the president to die. ,nd the speaker of the house democrat of massachusetts. they are waiting for president reagan to come down the aisle. >> john use these photographs in your book on president bush. i have no idea what the joke was. this is a heartwarming moment for me.
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they are waiting for the president of the united states to come into the room. they are yakking it up in front of all that. ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> i love this so much. >> is that available on amazon? >> probably. i show these pictures to the president. i said, do you have any idea what we were talking about? he said, no, but it was funny.
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>> here we are in geneva. i got this major-league scoop for time magazine. call the bromance photo. it was the fireside summit. this is really their reaction. one was a soviet photographer, the other was a white house photographer. hell outst charmed the of mikael gorbachev. what did he tell you? atthe two critical moments the end of the cold war in terms of the american soviet union inectly was this summit
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geneva in 1985 and the way president bush handled the fall of the berlin wall. this was incredibly important for both men. office as come into this ferocious warrior. that peopleelf think, combination of the mad bomber and ebenezer scrooge. he knew he needed to overcome that. he couldn't meet with soviet leaders because they keep dying on me. then they get this 54-year-old breath of fresh air. -- margaretet for thatcher told reagan, i think this is a man we can do business with.
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>> i could have stayed for the whole meeting. they were going on their way. i walked out and i came back in when they broke up the meeting. the rate -- the way reagan handled the meeting was impressive. it was pretty incredible. >> the reason reagan could make that stuff work is his central job for becoming president was , but being governor the head of the screen actors guild. for eight years he negotiated with all the studio heads. people used to say, what is it like dealing with gorbachev, they would say, you have never met jack warner.
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>> i was one of the photographers of the inauguration putting out this book. the photograph of them in the to me it went to the heart of where people are. i love the idea of pictures, but the main thing is i revealed something about people. look at this, it is like a high school prom moment. you learn something about who they are. and you learn something about who he is. ?> this is the first time , the first time i photographed him.
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you have to be careful these days. >> has he changed? >> does it look like it? >> i would say no. the campaign for politico and cnn and i covered it down the pike. i was going to be covering trump losing the election as i thought. i was in the new york hilton ballroom. people going, how did you know? i said, i didn't know. the main thing that happened was
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-- it had hillary and donald trump the cover. one of the guys who knew jared kushner called him and said we would like to have a special and obviouslyn that is like catnap for trump. they agreed to it. i got my sit-down session with him in trump office -- in his office in trump tower. he is smiling and my first photograph of him was this. this doesn't look natural to me. i rarely saw him smile.
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>> i think he looks like joaquin phoenix in the joker. >> i got worried about this. i said how about give me the year fired look from the apprentice. .e did his best i thought, they will never put that on the color -- on the with thiswe ended up photograph. it's one they use a branded photo. it's about two minutes and 15 seconds. about four or five pictures wanted to see the photo.
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he said, i look better there than i do in real life. that was almost a funny thing yet i didn't know he could joke. so i said, you are not going to fire jared. he said, jared is ok. the book comes out. that cnn has the election book out. i wish him luck. worst picture ever on the cover. let's get back to normal here. tell the back story. >> this is a picture in the oval office. president-elect obama to meet with former president's club.
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it was controversial were mccarter was standing away from the others. the important thing was getting it. they weren't going to let me into take it. big item for them over at the bush white house. there's going to be an event where the president poses for these pictures. it was bad weather. i wasn't going to get in. i pulled my friend, had his private number. i picks it up, hey dave area said you still have influence over there? he said, not much. i said, i need to get into this
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picture. i wouldn't bug you about it normally, but this is important to me. i was there with the first five presidents with the reagan library. he said, let me see what i can do. two minutes later the phone rings. >> we want you to be here. and that's how i got in. i think my last moment will my favorite picture i have taken in my career. thatthe background on background on this, one of my principal clients was bank of america and they were once a big sponsor of the african-american museum.
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they asked me to go to this event, which was one of the most emotional things i have ever seen. when michelle obama came walking out, there was just this brief hug, and normally if your subject has their eyes closed, the picture is screwed up. in this case, it just made the photo. i just want to say, historically, this captured the best of what we are when in a hownt we were commemorating we had moved from the worst we could and it had so much to do with slavery. we thing this shows us is are just trying to get to a more perfect union. not a perfect one. if you are looking for an image of what it is like between the
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struggle of our better angels in our worst instincts, if our better in jewels can win 51% of the time, that is a good percentage and you get a picture like that. hero with myame a boys, because the picture went viral. >> which you thought was a medical term. [laughter] >> i thought that this something they had no cure for. this was a much seen photograph with some really funny stuff. a quick final shot, david is obviously my friend but like all of you, i live in the light of his achievements. shop for a minute. uncharacteristic. david is an architect of the culture and it is the part of
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the culture that matters most all of us, the history of the republic. republic in the original latin means the public and the stories he has told, the moments you have captured are the moments that have shaped the way we live moreand i can't imagine a fortunate place than the university of arizona to have this man's work here. [applause] we are not going to bring out someone who actually knows something about all this. of director of the center photography will join us. [applause]
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♪ we get a little music in the background. is that original? >> it is. >> we set up a little table. thank you both. that was incredible, wasn't it? [applause] we are going to do the q&a version and my husband is probably out there cringing because i'm not great with but you're going to text your questions and they will pop up on my ipad and we will go from there. there is the number. here is one for david. why did you choose the university of arizona? >> this is the best place for
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photography on the planet. [applause] center, the center for creative photography, as i mentioned earlier, just has an all-star lineup of great photographers. of course, ansell adams being the foundation for it. getjohn schaefer tried to my archive in 1979. i said i have only been out of high school 10 years. you must have seen something. 38 years later, here i am. this is a question for john. ofthe last print issue newsweek, you wrote that the
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fate of journalism is uncertain. that was december 2012. truth andio against responsible language, how do you feel today? >> i think the fate of journalism is uncertain. journalism as a -- is facing unique pressures both culturally and politically, which we talked about, but also economically. i would call he distinction and i try to make this point, i don't how useful it is, i think the media is one thing and the press is another. we are all part of the media. if you have a phone, you have the power if something goes viral to reach more people the end walter cronkite ever thought about. world, ais a media media ecosystem that is driven
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by three characteristics. , andctability, speed hyperbole. that is the way to build an audience. fordon't get many followers a feed that is called on the one hand, on the other hand. that doesn't work. if everybody who says they love news hour actually watches newshour, the ratings would be higher. they would not have enough tote bags to hand out. so i think that it is on all of us. if you are not subscribing to a journalistic institution that you believe helps shed light as opposed to generate heat, if you are not voting with your wallet, and if you can't quite help it but maybe just checking in with msnbc but fox, depending on where you are, ideologically,
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you are complicit in it. this is that about politicians are far more often mirrors of who we are rather than molders. that is an uncomfortable reality. it, io, the economics of as asked -- i was giving class for wounded warriors and one of them asked me, i showed slides ranging from some of what you've seen and i was asked what i be able, working for a these days, to do this kind of assignments? no way. jump onazine, i would the concorde, go to london and catch a plane to cairo to her three times a month because we got an interview or something
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happened. value oft of -- the what people spend on assignments to go cover these assignments are millions of dollars for pictures you would never be able to do now. is that it? >> know, there is more. slew should say, we have a of questions and we probably won't able to get to them all, but we are going to take them, we will give them to you and push them out on social media for our website later, so all of your questions will be addressed. >> is that like a homework assignment? >> i have got you now. >> you will have to work harder to dodge them. >> ok, which president's personality was the most different in private versus public? >> that is a good question.
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i think abraham lincoln. [laughter] probably. i remember we would be talking about it afterward. nixonk it is richard might be one who seemed to be -- certainly the kind of things he would say in private. ford, certainly what you saw was who he was, and reagan pretty much. i don't think any of those people have been like jekyll and hyde. certainly not donald trump, because he is how he is. i don't really know him that well. >> what is the one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring photographer? >> i am proud of you for doing
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it and the best way to learn how to take pictures is to take pictures. myself andch taught even though big magazines are not what they used to be your don't exist, there are so many outlets now. one reason i like facebook and instagram is because i am the editor and the creator. i would never discourage anybody. we need writers, photographers. my advice is to do it. you've got to figure out a way
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to do it yourself. it sounds like a nike ad. this question is for me. why is the center collecting photojournalism? photojournalism allows us to look at images that chronicle history. take the words of and put it in the conversation. they communicate the beauty and the joy in what we want to see show thenk they also hard times and challenges. if you think about photojournalism as just one
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dialect in the multitude of languages of photography, the center is a place that speaks all of them. how did i do? >> i like that. >> i am a student here at the university. what is the best way to get young people like me to understand the historical context of the time we are in today? >> i would go back to what meacham said. it is important to subscribe now . the whole model of how people going to keep newspapers going is not going to be getting them at their front door. it, but you have got to read the big ones. of cut to read a daily diet
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new york times, washington post, l.a. times, politico. there is no excuse for not knowing what is going on. is ahing about it, it never ending quest for the truth. we are not shading things. you get news from reputable sources and face this onslaught of fake news and the failing new york times and all that. think these are professional people. for the wire services, if you branch out or put one in with photoshop, you get fired. you have to believe and who is delivering you the news. faith in the big players. read a blog from
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some insane person? voice, but you don't have to listen to them all. >> absolutely right. say is that just because we have the means of expressing an opinion quickly does not mean we have an opinion worth expressing quickly. i include myself in that. question, ixt advise undergraduates, pick an era that seems resident and find andreally good narrative read it. i would not be doing what i'm doing if i hadn't read books that i didn't think would be exactly relevant to the work of that moment.
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a man that david schott, hermann woke. my vision of world war ii in many ways was shaped by his novels that i read early on. worse if you are trying to figure out american vicissitudes of the politics that we are now so hyperventilating about, read william manchester's glory and the dream. think, ie it, you will don't have four years. power -- is a believe this as firmly as i believe anything -- there is a power and a utility to knowing that what we are experiencing may not have exactly happened, but we have come through difficult times before.
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fort sumter was pretty bad. joe mccarthy fell from power. richard nixon fell from power. that there have been moments where various institutions and people have finally said that is enough is the way to go. also, there are people like .erald ford to pick up they are definitely out there. there is no question about it. so we will read books and look at photographs. >> you should try the andrew jackson biography. for which he won a pulitzer prize. >> we have learned so much
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tonight. thank you. --nk you for letting us [applause] >>'s job. -- nice job. thank you very much. >> thank you. good night. are we going this way? ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] american history tv products are now available at the new c-span online tour. go to c-span tour.org to see what is new for american history tv.
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c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. west virginia became a state during the midst of the civil war in 1863. the c-span cities tour continues its look at charleston with a visit to the west virginia state museum. to learn about early settlement in the area and what led to statehood. >> west virginia state museum was founded in 1894 and has been continuous ever since.

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