Portfolio images

The second of three pages I built for the anniversary of Kennedy's assassination. Originally, I had planned to do something about media coverage. After huge events like Newtown and the Boston bombing, people ask why the media can't get facts right like they used to in the old days. Well, the media got lots of things wrong in the first few hours in Dallas, too. I wanted to teach readers a few things about the nature of breaking news reporting and to offer the thought that the good ol' days really weren't nearly as good as you remember them being. But our features folks objected to that angle, saying it stepped on the toes of what they had planned. I eventually worked that out, but by that time, I had decided that what really made me feel the impact of that day were pictures of Jackie. Whenever I see pictures of Jackie and the shellshocked expression on her fact that day, I tear up. My epiphany was: Well, hell, let's run with that. So I picked out these five key pictures, read up on what was going on when each was taken and I wrote the little essays with the thought of telling the story from her point of view and accentuating the emotion. I was really proud of the result -- much more so than I would have been had I pursued the media angle. Nov. 22, 2013.