Photographer Assigned to Motorcade: JFK Assassination

Photography News

Being in the right place at the right time may not be a good thing at all — but, ironically, bad events usually turn into great opportunities for photographers. The nomad nature of a photographer’s job, in some way, makes him more exposed and opened to experience such happenings.

The following video includes a partial audio interview of photographer Bob Jackson, where he describes what happened that day from his point of view. This video in particular was produced in 2009 for an exhibition at The Sixth Floor Museum At Dealey Plaza, featuring Jackson’s photographs:

Bob Jackson was a photographer for the Dallas Times Herald when, back in 1963, he was assigned to follow J. F. Kennedy’s motorcade from Love Field through downtown Dallas, on November 22nd, for his speech coverage. As Kennedy’s limousine passed through Dealey Plaza, Bob accidentally experienced one of the most striking moments of US History.

He was in fact one of the few eyewitnesses to see a rifle protruding from a sixth-floor window of the former Texas School Book Depository hitting President John F. Kennedy.

“My eyes went up to the next floor and I could see a rifle; I could see a rifle and it being drawn in the window.”