July 28, 2008

RFK coda

funeraltrain.jpgUntitled (Baltimore) by Paul Fusco


kn9.jpgby Martin Johnson

As sort a quiet coda to Paul Fusco's profoundly moving RFK Funeral Train Exhibition which closes this week at Danziger Projects, Square America (a photographic ephemera site) released a set of found pictures of RFK's funeral as seen on television which the the site has titled What Was On (June 1968). I was one year old in 1968 but the pictures evoke images of my childhood living rooms, some of my first memories. Both sets of pictures in very different ways evoke the emotion of that year and need of the photographers to hold on to those emotions.

If you didn't get a chance to see the Fusco exhibition first hand, Aperture is re-releasing an expanded version of his book. It is available for pre-order. I can't wait for mine to arrive. The Square America guys are releasing their own book titled "Who We Were: A Snapshot History Of America", no pre-release link yet.

posted at 01:08 AM by raul

Filed under: photography

TAGS: 1968 (1) funeral train (1) rfk (1)

Comments:

07/28/08 11:45 AM

The Fusco images on Danziger's blog and on the nytimes site are spectacular (the pictures on Danziger's gallery site are oddly oversharpened). I was 4 in 1968 and this event is my first political memory. The television shots are grim and sobering they remind me of my house. I imagine my dad watching the tv scotch in hand an my mom silently weeping. Thanks for bringing these to my attention. I'll buy both books for sure.

07/29/08 11:34 PM

Is the caption of the first picture identifying the location as Harlem? I am almost certain that it depicts Broadway in Baltimore, facing north towards Federal St as the train approaches Baltimore Penn Station.

07/30/08 01:28 AM

You're exactly right. I had always assumed the image was looking down upper Park Avenue in Harlem but of course the train comes up out of Park Avenue and doesn't run across it. And now that I look at it again, the architecture is obviously Baltimore as well... Thanks for the correction. I've thought this was in the wrong city for years!

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