Paul Fusco: RFK

Paul Fusco: RFK, published during the fortieth anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, is the long-awaited follow-up to Fusco's acclaimed RFK Funeral Train, a body of work heralded as a contemporary classic. This historical new publication features more than 70 never-before-seen images, many selected from the untapped treasure trove of slides that comprise the Library of Congress' Look Magazine Collection.

As a staff photographer for Look magazine in 1968, Fusco was commissioned to document all of the events surrounding the funeral. In addition to capturing the thousands of Americans who stood by the railroad tracks to greet the funeral train carrying Kennedy's coffin, he also photographed the mourners gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, as well as the dramatic night burial in Arlington National Cemetery. In this volume, newly discovered photographs are presented alongside classic images of the funeral train that have been seared into public consciousness from two previous iterations of the work: a 1999 limited edition and the 2000 trade edition, both long out-of-print.

Paul Fusco: RFK provides a new perspective on this legendary photographer's singular achievement. It also helps solidify the status of this classic body of work as one of the great efforts in photographic reportage and an incomparable document of this pivotal moment in U.S. history.

Paul Fusco, born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1930 and a member of Magnum Photos since 1974, began his career photographing for the U.S. Signal Corps during the Korean War. He studied photojournalism at Ohio University and his work has been widely published and exhibited at venues including the Photographers' Gallery, London and the International Festival of Photojournalism, Perpignan, France.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, brother of Robert F. Kennedy, has served in the U.S. Senate since 1962.

Norman Mailer (1923-2007) wrote more than 30 books, garnering the Pulitzer Prize twice.

Evan Thomas is Editor at Newsweek and author of Robert Kennedy: His Life.

Vicki Goldberg is a leading voice in the field of photography criticism; her essay collection Light Matters was published by Aperture in 2005.

It has been forty years since the murder of Robert Kennedy. For those too young to remember the summer of 1968, it is difficult to convey the shock and despair that followed that event. Famed photographer Paul Fusco was on the funeral train as it went from New York to Washington D.C. His photos of the people lining the tracks to say goodbye are a reflection of their raw emotions and the diversity of Kennedy's supporters. The book begins with short essays by Norman Mailer and Evan Thomas and a reprint of the eulogy delivered at the funeral by Edward Kennedy. Oversize: 12x10". Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Text by Norman Mailer, Evan Thomas, Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

"Paul Fusco: RFK," published during the 40th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, is the long-awaited follow-up to Fusco's acclaimed "RFK Funeral Train." This new publication features more than 70 never-before-seen images.

Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, this long-awaited follow-up to Fusco's acclaimed "RFK Funeral Train" features more than 70 newly discovered, never-before-seen images of this pivotal moment in U.S. history. Introduction by Senator Edward M. Kennedy.Aperture

On June 5, 1968, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. His death, which occurred only two months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., came as a terrible shock to an already-grieving nation. Three days later, a funeral train carried his coffin from New York to its final resting place in Arlington Cemetery. Hundreds of thousands of people stood in the searing heat as the train traveled slowly en route to Washington, D.C. Paul Fusco, then a staff photographer for Look magazine, accompanied the train on its journey. The images he made convey the respect the American people--both rich and poor, black and white--held for RFK, a man who had come to symbolize social justice. As Fusco writes, when Bobby rose to try to reestablish a government of hope, the hearts of Americans quickened and excitement flared. Then tragedy struck again. The blow was monumental. Two previous versions of RFK Funeral Train--a 1999 limited-edition and a 2000 edition (now out-of-print)--have been heralded as contemporary classics. This newly expanded volume--released to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Kennedy's death--offers 30 never-before-published images, alongside a memoir of Kennedy by Norman Mailer and a retelling of the assassination by Newsweek editor and RFK biographer Evan Thomas.