Award-Winning Time Magazine Photographer Diana Hardin Walker ’59 Shares Her Experiences with Foxcroft School Community

MIDDLEBURG, VA — Foxcroft School recently hosted award-winning photographer Diana Hardin Walker ’59, a Foxcroft alumna, as its 59th Alison Harrison Goodyear ’29 Fellow and speaker. Walker is best known for her behind-the-scenes White House coverage for Time Magazine from 1984 to 2004.

Sitting in front of a rotating slideshow of her photos, Walker answered questions posed by Head of School Dr. Lisa Kaenzig, sharing some of the challenges she encountered as a female photojournalist in the 1970s and 1980s.

“You’ve all heard about the women’s movement?” she queried. “I was starting out right in the middle of it. There were a lot of female photographers. There have always been, in the history of photography. But in the hard scrabble, little bit tough news business … I had to sort of push away my good Foxcroft manners. It wasn’t easy, except they could see the following Monday in Time Magazine whether I was able to make a good picture or not.”

Over 20 years and four presidencies, she would, as she joked with the audience, perfect her “creeping around” skills. “[Time] said, see how many opportunities you can get behind the scenes and show us the president when he’s not in public, when he’s not working. Show us the president when he’s playing. Let us see him not as we see him every day in photo ops. So that became my specialty.”

“The pictures you see here in black and white are significant because there was no other photographer there but myself,” she continued, “except, of course, the president’s photographer or the visiting president’s photographer. But the regular press corps wasn’t there, and I loved doing that. I got to know the presidents because I was always around. It was special, and different, and it was fun. And I found all the presidents were fascinating individuals.”

Walker would go on to capture some of the most raw and stunning behind-the-scenes moments of four presidents: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, as well as both presidential campaigns for Hillary Clinton. Winning multiple awards for her efforts, including from World Press, the White House News Photographers Association, and the National Press Photographers Association, her photographs are also in the collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

As the conversation drew to a close, Kaenzig asked Walker to share a final reflection or advice for students.

“I look at all of you, and I think you’re all going to do fine,” she responded with conviction, “and I’ll tell you why. It’s because you’re here. When I think about Foxcroft and what it did for me, it was a school that gave me confidence… I don’t mean to go on about what the School did for me, but it gave me the best friends in my life, and they still are my best friends. … Good luck to all of you.”

Following a robust Q&A, Walker ate lunch with students from Photography 1, 2, and 3, then spent more than an hour seated just outside the new darkroom she generously donated in the Mars STEAM Building, answering their questions and sharing stories.

The Alison Harrison Goodyear ’29 Fellowship program, offered through the generosity of the family and friends of Alison Harrison Goodyear, Foxcroft Class of 1929, brings distinguished speakers and provocative performers to Foxcroft to deliver a keynote address and to conduct small-group seminars with students.

Fellowship recipients during the program’s 56-year history include such remarkable voices as Maya Angelou, James Baker III, Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, Sally Ride, Barbara Walters, tech entrepreneur Sheena Allen, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Jennifer Pharr Davis, Hello Fears founder Michelle Poler, NPR “Morning Edition” host Rachel Martin, GenHERation founder Katlyn Grasso, The Social Institute founder Laura Tierney, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dr. Marcia Chatelain, former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, Haitian-American director and global philanthropist Claudine Oriol, renowned oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, inclusive design educator Grace Jun, and social impact expert and mental health advocate Elyse Cohen.

Photos courtesy of Foxcroft School.

Posted on: March 5, 2026