Paul Fusco: RFK's Funeral Train

After Robert Kennedy's assassination, his body crossed the country by train. All along the way, people flocked to the tracks to pay their last respects to the fallen leader. They came in throngs, they came in groups of one, two and seven. They were white and black and brown. They were poor and middle class. They were Democrats and Republicans.

Photographer Paul Fusco was there and captured some of those who came to bid good-night to RFK. The M + B Gallery is currently showing some of Fusco's images. Here is how they introduce the exhibit:

M+B is pleased to announce the exhibition PAUL FUSCO: RFK FUNERAL TRAIN. The opening will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. On a Saturday afternoon on June 5, 1968, Magnum photographer Paul Fusco accompanied the body of Robert F. Kennedy as it made its way from New York City to its final resting place in Arlington Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. Transported by train, the coffin was placed in the last of twenty-two cars and elevated so that it was visible through the large observation windows. However, it was what lay outside the train that interested Fusco most: the track-side mourners who--silent, curious and patient--waited to pay their respects.

"They were mostly ordinary Americans: young parents, retirees, nuns, men in suits, teenagers in shorts. Some waved happily. Others wailed in grief. Some stood quietly, hand to heart. Others snapped pictures. Some looked plainly curious. Others hoisted placards of farewell. Some brought flowers, many only themselves. Boy Scouts waved the Stars and Stripes. A woman knelt, her hands touching in prayer." (Margarett Loke, New York Times)

A uniquely profound record, RFK FUNERAL TRAIN is an oblique chronicle of the tragedy and trauma of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination. In tribute to RFK's raw empathy and his determination to make lives better across the social spectrum, hundreds of thousands of people stood patiently in the searing heat to pay their respects. It was one of those rare instance during the Civil Rights era that showed a nation coming together, when both black and white shared a respect for a leader whom they believed could have healed the country's wounds.

In vivid color, Fusco's study provides a unique exploration of a nation coming to terms with the loss of a president who never was. It presents a snapshot of a broad range of American citizens and conveys the depth of civic feeling engendered by the tragedy. With their strange blend of valediction and voyeurism, these pictures capture a decisive moment in American history, pictures in which the subject is forcibly absent. In an equally profound way, RFK FUNERAL TRAIN offers a salient and instructive contrast to the diminishing levels of affection that the public holds towards the political classes of today.

Paul Fusco was born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1930. He received his B.F.A. in photojournalism from Ohio University and went directly to work for Look magazine as a staff photographer and traveled extensively in South East Asia, Mexico, India, Europe and Russia. In 1974 he joined Magnum Photos. His work has appeared in many domestic and international publications such as Life, Time, Newsweek, The Sunday Times and Paris Match. He has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Newseum, New York and the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. RFK Funeral Train was published by Umbrage Editions in 2001, with an introduction by Norman Mailer. Most recently, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired six of his photographs from this series.

Here are a few for your consideration:
















Any thoughts...?

Mexican Superheroes!

Over at Mother Jones, they recently ran a photo-essay by photographer Dulce Pinzon, titled, "Mexican Superheroes," and with a secondary headline that read, "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's a Mexican Immigrant". MJ described the 4-photo spread this way: "Pinzon posed undocumented Mexican immigrants in superhero costumes and captured their feats of derring-do in New York City." I thought it was worth reposting...

Here are the photos and the text that appeared with each one:

Photo #1: "It's Clobberin' Time"
Luis Hernandez (The Thing) works in demolition and sends $200 a week home to Veracruz.

Photo: #2: "Super Fry"
Oscar Gonzalez (Human Torch) is a cook. Originally from Oaxaca, he sends home $350 a week.

Photo #3: "Spidey Cents"
Window washer Bernabe Mendez (Spider-Man) sends $500 a month home to Guerrero

Photo #4: "Kitty Sitter"
Minerva Valencia (Catwoman) works as a nanny. She sends $400 a week home to Puebla

Any thoughts or comments about this photo-essay, or its meaning?

Look What I Saw On Mulberry Street...

(click to enlarge any of the following photographs)

Among other specialized topics, I also teach the second half of the U.S. History survey course (1877-present), as well as a class called "The Historian's Craft," where I introduce students to the art of historical research, analysis and writing. In both classes I use a lot of primary documents to bring the history alive or to help students hone their skills. One of my absolute favorite images in this capacity is the above photograph of Mulberry Street from 1900. Mulberry Street is located in Little Italy on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The photo offers such a rich window into the life of "new immigrants" at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries.

Prior to 1870, very few Italians came to the United States as immigrants. But, faced with growing economic distress at home, more and more came during the late-19th and early-20th centuries, seeking new opportunities. From 1890 to 1900, 655,888 Italian immigrants, 2/3 men, came to the United States and between 1900-1910 the number soared to 2.1 million! During the broad period 1820 and 1920, over 4,190,000 people emigrated from Italy to the United States. Only Ireland (4,400,000) and Germany (5,500,000) came anywhere near these figures. The majority of Italian immigrants came from rural communities and possessed little formal education. They intended to stay just long enough to make some money before returning to their families in Italy. In the end, though, only 40% made it back to their homeland; roughly 60% stayed in the U.S. for good. As with many other immigrants, Italians gathered in overcrowded, often dilapidated ethnic neighborhoods in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit. The main ethnic rival of the Italians was the Irish and in many cities the two groups clashed as they competed for unskilled jobs, housing, political patronage and other scarce resources. And for the record, despite popular media portrayals of the Italian mafia, the US Department of Justice has estimated that less than .0025 percent of Italian Americans have had anything to do with organized crime.

One of the cool things about this amazing photo is that it offers the opportunity to zoom in on more detailed views of working-class immigrant life during this time period. Here are some examples (click any image to enlarge):

Here is a view of the street market. Note the clothing.


Here is a man standing on a balcony. Note the architecture.


Here is a deep view of the background. Note that this scene of immigrant life goes on and on and on...


I like these guys sitting on the back of a wagon. Looks like they might be messing with someone...


This is a detail from the dead center of the photo. I like the vehicles and the way things are piled super-high!


Here is a detail of one couple.


This one shows a detail of women's clothes hanging off a rickety storefront.


Anyone for a beer?


I think that a close examination of photos like these allows us to better access the humanity of these immigrants and their lived experiences.

LeRoy Grannis, "Big Waves"

I've been hitting politics hard recently, so I feel moved to head in a different direction...

I am teaching my "America in the 60s" course this semester, so have been poking around in a variety of sources and came across these amazing surfing photos by LeRoy Grannis. Just like the hippies, the surf scene was another interesting laguna of youth culture in the 60s. These photos are drawn from the M+B Gallery website and here is what those folks have to say about the artist:

A surfer since 1931, LeRoy Grannis was born in Hermosa Beach, California in 1917 and began shooting surf-culture images on 22nd Street in Hermosa in 1960 as a hobby at the suggestion of a family doctor. His work immediately appeared in the important surf culture magazines of the time including Surfer, Reef and Surfing Illustrated. He quickly became one of the sport's most important documentarians, voted into the International Surfing Hall of Fame as the number one lensman in 1966 and in 2002 was awarded SIMA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Grannis was the subject of The Surfers Journal's first ode to the master photographers in 1998 with Photo: Grannis; his work was featured in Stacy Peralta's 2002 award-winning documentary of the sport, Riding Giants; and most recently, LeRoy Grannis: Birth of a Culture was published as a limited-edition, signed collector's edition monograph by TASCHEN. The artist, who will turn ninety this year, continues to photograph the sport from his home near San Diego.

Well, dag. I'd sure like to meet that guy, wouldn't you? Here are a few of his beautiful photos (click any photo to enlarge):










When I saw these, it reminded of me of Tom Wolfe's "The Pump House Gang," which focuses on California surf culture during this period (thanks to my friend TJ for turning me on to that one back in graduate school). Here is an interesting recent article from San Diego Magazine on "The Pump House Gang" 40 years later:

"Forgiving Tom Wolfe: Four decades after publication of The Pump House Gang, the work is still a point of contention for members of the local surf culture whose lives it chronicled"

To find out more about the whole book, click here:
Tom Wolfe, "The Pump House Gang"

To check out the entire exhibition by LeRoy Grannis at the M+B Gallery website, click here:
LeRoy Grannis, "Big Waves"