October 1, 2007
Press Articles :: Artistic Statement - Statement Magazine - Oct/Nov 2007
ARTIST: David Michael Kennedy
HOMETOWN: New York City
CURRENT HOME: Spiritually, New Mexico—or wherever the Airstream is parked
MEDIUM: Platinum/palladium, gelatin silver and mixed media photographs
David Michael Kennedy is a rare mixture of New York tenacity and New Mexico frontiersman. Based in Manhattan in the 1970s and ’80s, Kennedy built a successful career in advertising, editorial, album cover and portrait photography. Among his iconic subjects: Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Muddy Waters, Debbie Harry and Isaac Stern.
In 1987 he fulfilled a longstanding dream, and left the Big Apple for northern New Mexico, where he began to produce an intensely personal and captivating body of work inspired by the Southwest landscape and its people, especially the indigenous Native American population.
Working first with the Northern Pueblo of New Mexico, and then the Lakota Sioux, Kennedy produced two unique portfolios on ceremonial dance. To this day he continues to document life on the reservations.
In March of 2004, after becoming disenchanted with the images he saw in the newspapers and on television, Kennedy embarked on a two-year odyssey across the nation, living and working in a vintage 1960 Airstream trailer, seeking out the real America.
He documented his experience in a recently released, limited-edition book, On the Road.
For more information go to www.davidmichaelkennedy.com
