Photographer David Hume Kennerly first met Photographer Ansel Adams in 1974, when Kennerly was President Gerald Ford's personal photographer at the White House. Struck by the haunting landscapes in Ansel Adams: Images 1923-1974, Kennerly brought the volume to the President's attention. Ford asked Adams for one of his prints and, at Kennerly's suggestion, invited the artist to preside over its installation in the President's private office.
Since then, Ford's two favorite photographers have met several times, both at Adams' home on the oceanside cliffs of Carmel, Calif., and at Kennerly's townhouse in Washington, D.C. Kennerly has acquired three Ansel Adamses, and...