Artist’s Studio
Artist’s Studio
White walls and plenty of them turned into Kennerly’s most recent visual playground when he moved to his new Los Angeles studio in 2019. For the first time, he was able to create a collection that reflected his own sensibilities and contradictions. Of course, he needed the “Greatest Hits Wall,” as he called it, a wall filled with an eclectic collection of images he created from key political moments mixed with some of his favorite celebrity portraits. For another room, he placed two seemingly dissimilar large format prints side-by-side; Betty Ford Dancing on the Cabinet Room Table next to a blow-up of the proof sheet from President Nixon’s famous departure from the White House after resignation. He displayed a triptych of marching soldiers dressed in primary colors from the Peoples’ Republic of China’s massive 50th anniversary, which he titled, “The Good Ole’ Red, White, and Blue.” Nearby, he placed a large portrait of his good friend, Ansel Adams kidding around during the Time Magazine Cover shoot that Kennerly photographed. Around the corner, he placed one of his best-known works featuring five U.S. Presidents, above which he put a plaque reading “Presidential Suite.” Then he dived into less-known work and experimented with new large formats, including a colorful image of Koi fish. His wife selected a more moody pair of large format prints for her office; a dramatic Northern New Zealand bayscape facing one of deserted pier pilings disappearing into their reflection on a frosty winter morning. The overall result is a collection filled with history, color, happiness, melancholy and shadows.