She was always in the thick of things: since the mid eighties, Walker accompanied the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as an assignment photographer for TIME magazine. In addition, she documented the election campaigns of Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Her timeless pictures reflect her ability to not only document specific moments, but to also create images that today – detached from the original occasion – reveal much more about the personality portrayed and the sensitive machinery of political staging. We spoke with the great photographer about her beginnings and her experiences.
When did your interest in photography begin?
I loved how cameras worked. I remember my first Brownie Hawkeye, and soon fell in love with a camera in the window of Morgan’s Pharmacy near our house: a Kodak Pony 135. All through my teenage years I took pictures at home and at school, loving black and white Tri-X film, as I could process it in our basement where my chemicals were always in the way of the laundry detergent! When I reached high school, as was the custom in my parents lives and my older brothers, I went off to boarding school. I have often laughed that I chose my boarding school because it had a beautiful darkroom! I had two interests that kept me from studying as much as I should have: photography and theatre.
First Lady Nancy Reagan kisses her son, Ron Reagan Jr., after his performance in the Joffrey Ballet, 1981
Looking back, how do you see your work today?
Today I’m struck by how different the magazine world is compared to when I was working. I believe the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s were the golden age of magazines. Politicians and Presidents wanted to be in TIME magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, US News, or Stern, Paris Match, or the British Sunday Times magazine. TIME wanted photographers to be at the White House every day, so we never missed anything the President was doing, even when he didn’t have a public schedule. We were never to miss a surprise. That is a lot of day rates! And there was plenty of work.
What do you think of today’s press work, given the sheer mass of current images vying for attention in the media?
Then, of course, with the coming of a camera in a portable phone, things began to change radically. In many different ways. Social media began to send messages around the world in an instant. I had a photograph go viral – my first and only viral image. People now get their news online and fake news has undermined all news outlets. No more morning newspapers when people can get the entertainment version on Instagram or Tik Tok.
With a bit of melancholy, we prefer to look at your photographs, of which you recently published a new selection in the photo book Through Her Lens. Thank you very much for the interview!
Diana Walker was born on January 20, 1942 in Washington D.C.. She started out as a freelance photographer; then, as of the mid seventies, worked at Washington Monthly magazine, and as of 1979 as assignment photographer for TIME magazine, with the opportunity to report directly from the White House. Her work has appeared in international magazines, numerous exhibitions and many photo books, including The Bigger Picture. 30 Years of Portraits (National Geographic, 2007), Hillary: The Photographs of Diana Walker (Simon & Schuster, 2014) and Through Her Lens: The Photojournalism of Diana Walker (Briscoe Center for American History, Texas 2024). The Diana Walker Photographic Archive at the Briscoe Center includes over 200,000 images. Diana Walker lives in Washington D.C.
A portfolio of Diana Walker’s work appeared in issue 4.2024 of the LFI magazine.
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