Photographer David Hume Kennerly was “deeply touched” by Kathleen Parker’s latest column praising a photograph Kennerly took of former special counsel Robert Mueller.
Kennerly snapped a shot of Mueller while the prosecutor testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The picture, titled “Weary Warrior,” is a close-up portrait of Mueller presumably looking at a lawmaker questioning him.
“I was deeply touched by Kathleen Parker’s recent column in the [Washington Post] about my portrait of Robert Mueller under the headline ‘Mueller deserves a Medal of Honor.’ She put into words what I was seeing, and what I felt. The combination of her writing, and my visual moment is the perfect pairing of why both are so important in our bearing witness to what is happening in the world,” Kennerly said in an Instagram post.
Parker, a columnist for the Washington Post, featured Kennerly’s shot in her Friday article that argued for Mueller to be awarded for his congressional testimony.
“The close-up of Mueller’s face was a portrait of rare depth, the sort one is more likely to find on a Leonardo da Vinci canvas with all its shadows, hollows and his soulful, nearly weeping eyes,” Parker wrote. “I found myself thinking of paintings of the Agony in the Garden, showing Jesus’ upturned face as he prayed. No doubt, Mueller, too, was praying that this all would soon be over.”
Mueller’s testimony was riddled with halting answers and hesitancy. At times, the witness seemed to not know key facts and passages in his own report over his investigation into Russian interference and the allegation that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian agents against Hillary Clinton.
Parker accused the lawmakers that questioned Mueller, especially the Republicans, of “showboating” and bullying the 74-year-old.
“After two years of draining the swamp of several of its slimiest occupants — all associates of the president of the United States — Mueller had to present himself one final time for the benefit of politicians bent on showboating at his expense,” Parker wrote.
