david michael kennedy photography

During his final years in New York City Kennedy became particularly known for his black-and-white portraits and photographed entertainers such as Bruce Springsteen, Debra Harry, Julian Lennon, Muddy Waters and Isaac Stern. He was consistently published in top magazines including Rolling Stone, Newsweek, lyme, Penthouse and Elle. But the commercial work became raw, calculated and more business than art to Kennedy, so in June 1987, he decided to move cross country with his with his wife and son toward humbler pursuits. The couple settled on the open land of Sante Fe, New Mexico, which gave Kennedy what he needed to keep his inspiration alive..To this day, he remains in the blue-skied state and documents American Indian life, New Mexico landscapes, and historical sites with either a plastic Holga camera, his Pentax 67 or one of his 25-year-old Hasselblad ELMs which he prefers for portrait work, while still concentrating on his personal work. Now more of a fine artist, his-work is collected in galleries from the Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe to the Hackelbury Gallery in London, England. After over a decade in his new paradise, it seems the photographer's work is coming full circle. Recently, he has been commissioned by Working Women and Orion magazines to take portraits. But he approaches the assignments with a new outlook-that of optimism, void of commercialism. "I have total freedom now and I'm having a ball. I have a different mind-set. I treat it like a art project," said Kennedy. His latest assignment was to photograph a 79-year-old woman who worked as a welder at Kawasaki Motorcycles in Kansas all her life.

"So I took the camper and drove to Kansas. She was the epitome of what you would expect. She was perfect,"said Kennedy.

Another project led him to a female heavy-weight arm-wrestler, who by day, worked as a biochemist."She was smart, articulate and talked about how wrestling taught her how to focus in life. "He protects his celebrity work very carefully because he feels a sense of responsibility. He doesn't make prints into posters and if copies are made for a gallery, it is always a limited edition for hanging purposes only-never for reproduction.

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