On June 8, 1968, Paul Fusco stood with his camera before the open window of a train carrying the Robert Kennedy’s coffin just after his assassination. During the train’s eight-hour trip from New York to Washington, Fusco photographed hundreds of thousands of mourners lining the railroad tracks to say goodbye.
“It was an unrelenting ocean of emotion,” Fusco said. “These were people who saw their hopes and dreams passing by in a coffin.”
Fusco, a documentary photographer with 51 years of experience, spoke about the importance of professionalism and sensitivity in photography and showed his work to about 150 people Thursday at the Boston University College of Fine Arts as part of the BU Photographic Resource Center’s lecture series.
“My interest is not in being an artist, like a painter who invents something,” Fusco said before the lecture. “My goal is to photograph life and people so that the people who view my work will feel the reality and truth of that life.”
On that day in 1968, Fusco’s editors at Look Magazine gave him one instruction.
“They told me, ‘get on that train,’ and when the boss says get on the train, you get on the train,” Fusco said.
The photos, displayed on a large projection screen, showed men, women and children of all races crying, praying, saluting and holding up signs with phrases such as “So-Long Bobby.”
“Everyone was mixed together in a time of crisis,” Fusco said. “Human nature gathers us all in groups to share a loss.”
The images from Fusco’s train ride, shown in his book, “RFK Funeral Train,” have been republished this year to honor the 40th anniversary of Kennedy’s death.
Fusco also showed images from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus depicting the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when a nuclear power plant accident sent radiation throughout the area.
The photos showed abandoned lands, people living in radiated homes and affected children with mental and physical conditions living in asylums and hospitals.
On one set of photos depicting a mother and her sick child, Fusco recalled the child repeatedly asking, “Mommy, why am I dying?” and the mother replying simply, “Chernobyl.”
The experience was extremely emotional for Fusco, who said at times he could not see through his tears.
“It was my responsibility to tell their stories and show the realities of their lives,” Fusco said. “If I had stopped I would have never forgiven myself.”
BU Center for Digital Imaging Arts student Haoyuan Ren said he heard about the lecture from teachers and was impressed by Fusco’s ability to take profound and hard-hitting photographs while experiencing such sensitivity.
“From a technical standpoint, the photographs were really well composed, which means he must have a really natural talent,” Ren said.
Salt Institute for Documentary Studies photography program Director Kate Philbrick said she had come from Portland, Maine, for the lecture.
“It is sort of an honor to get the point of view of someone who has lived and worked the way he has,” Philbrick said. “I think the photographs are very powerful.”
Fusco’s lecture was a major opportunity for students to learn from a working documentary photographer, BU Photographic Resource Center Interim Education manager Jason Landry said.
“Words can’t express the importance of some of these topics,” Landry said. “Through his images people really get a sense of what it was to be there.”
Iconic images recalled
Published: Friday, November 14, 2008
Updated: Friday, November 14, 2008
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