11.13.13
Gordon Salchow | Slideshows

New Haven, November 22, 1963





President John F. Kennedy, Jr. was assassinated fifty years ago (22 November 1963) when I was a graduate student at Yale University.





I heard the alarming radio report while in a cafe across from Paul Rudolph's then new Art and Architecture building.





My reaction was to immediately purchase several roles of film and wander around New Haven with my Rollieflex.





I took random shots of people and places during the subsequent few hours on that shocking day.







I then made contact prints but did nothing else with them at the time and I have not touched them until now. I admit to periodically wondering if my subjectivity might had clouded objective photography enough to make them uninteresting for anyone else. Also, documenting the day was a somewhat personal way to acknowledge the tragedy. I have now decided that, if ever, this half-century anniversary was an appropriate time to share these photographs.





Here are several of the photos that, with some poignancy, capture that innocent "Camelot" era in a small American city and the stunned despair of an Internationally potent day.





Most images show citizens seemingly frozen in a daze, privately digesting the news or numbingly interacting with strangers.





























Posted in: History, Photography




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