Re: [Leica] Kennedy Photographer

[Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>]

>The only problem is that I can't remember the gentleman's name.  I
>have posed this question on other forums and have received numerous
>responses.  Most seem to think that it was Kennerly or Duncan.  

I can tell you it wasn't them. Kennerly was Gerald Ford's personal
photographer. Duncan, I don't think so.

George Tames of the New York Times had very good access to the White House
before Kennedy, by a few administrations, I think. Truman was the president
who started off the free access tradition. Nixon nearly killed it, Carter
wasn't too open, Regan somewhat, but Bush liked photographers (called them
"Photo Dogs" from his WWII years) and Clinton seems very open. Just saw a
program by Gore's personal photographer who has pretty much convinced the
current White House to open up the White House staff and the prez and VP to
photographers. Gore's wife was a photojournalist. Gore's personal
photographer uses Leicas and Canons. 

Her name is Callie Shell. Sat next to her at a recent conference. Quite a
good photographer, very tall. Had a wonderful story about Yassar Arafat and
the former Israeli Prime Minister. When they met, they were not very
friendly. But as peace talks progressed, they warmed up and forged a
friendship. Shortly after that the Prime minister (whose name escapes me at
this early hour) was assassinated. A few months after that, Arafat was back
in the White House. Shell saw him standing in a window that she had been
waiting years to find someone in the gorgeous light it often splashed
around the room. She took his picture, and noticed he was looking sad. She
said "What's wrong." And he said "I miss my friend."

Now we all know he's a terrorist,  and that some people might be offended
by this story. But it seems to me that some people are between a rock and a
hard place in their lives and as they mature, they change. Who knows how
things might have changed if that friendship was allowed to continue? The
legacy of that friendship has put his life in danger now.

That is one reason I love photography. We can be witnesses to history.
Whether it's earth-changing or a family get-together, we are recorders of
the future's memory of our times. The world's, and our families.'  I let
that kind of story motivate me to make better pictures! ;-) And with
Leicas, we can easily take pictures when people don't even notice. It sure
helps making "real" slices of life. Apologies to those who might be
offended, but I thought it was an interesting story.
- -- 

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

"While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us
nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in
which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see."


                 Dorothea Lange