Diana Walker


Diana Walker is an American photographer known for her work as a TIME Magazine White House photographer from 1984–2004.

Life and career

Diana Walker was born in Washington D.C. She attended Briarcliff College, where she majored in drama. After college, Walker spent 10 years in her mother's dress shop before deciding to pursue photography, a long-time hobby, as a career.
Walker worked as a freelance photographer for many years, shooting weddings and bar mitzvahs, before getting a job at the Washington Monthly Magazine. She has since contributed to People Magazine, The Washingtonian, Fortune, the New York Times Magazine, and The Village Voice.
Walker became a contract photographer for TIME Magazine in 1979, and was later promoted to one of the magazine's White House photographer positions in 1984, after covering Walter Mondale's presidential campaign. During her tenure at TIME Magazine, Walker covered the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, and followed the campaigns of Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Rodham Clinton. While at TIME Magazine, Walker spent a significant amount of time documenting Hillary Clinton's journey from First Lady to Senator, Democratic Presidential Candidate and Secretary of State. These photos have been compiled into a book, "Hillary: The Photographs of Diana Walker."

Awards

Walker has won several awards for her work from World Press Photo, the White House News Photographers Association and the National Press Photographers Association. In 2003, she received the National Portrait Gallery’s Paul Peck Award for her interpretation and portrayal of the Presidency. In 2012, she was awarded the Henry Luce Life Achievement Award from Time, Inc.

Books and exhibitions

Walker has authored three books. "Public & Private: Twenty Years Photographing the Presidency" chronicles Walker's own collection of photographs of the White House and Washington D.C. from her time at TIME Magazine.
The Bigger Picture: 30 Years of Portraits was published by National Geographic and includes 200 candid photos of presidents and other world leaders. Her most recent book, "Hillary: The Photographs of Diana Walker," published by Simon & Schuster in 2014, documents Hillary Clinton as she moved from First Lady to Senator to presidential candidate and later as Secretary of State.
Walker's work is featured in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American History. Her work has also been featured in exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, the North Carolina State University libraries, the Addison/Ripley Fine Art Gallery and the Howard Greenberg Gallery.