NEW YORK, NY.- When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, the event and its aftermath were transmitted to a stunned nation via photography and television. Many of the key news photographs from those days were taken by amateur photographers, or happenstance bystanders, rather than by professional photojournalists. On the fiftieth anniversary of this event, the International Center of Photography is presenting JFK November 22, 1963: A Bystander’s View of History, an exhibition that considers the role of the amateur photographers as witnesses to President Kennedy’s tragic assassination.

The Kennedy Presidency coincided with the rise of popular media, which established an intimate rapport between audiences and celebrities. Public events, including parades and rallies, were chances to see prominent figures and perhaps take their pictures. The widespread availability of inexpensive cameras and even instant photographs made photography accessible to middle-class audiences. This exhibition considers how mid-century viewers used the camera to understand and construct their lives—from their interest or goal in taking pictures of the President in the first place to the destination or use of these informal snapshots to what happened when such private notations became the public record of this key historical event.

JFK November 22, 1963 addresses the relationship between personal photography and collective memory. The exhibition departs from the typical recapitulation of the historical events of the Kennedy assassination and is instead a study of popular photography and its uses, taking a single historical event as a kind of case study. It might be called an anti-photojournalistic exploration in that it examines, on the one hand, the failure of professional news photographers to capture the climactic moments of the historical narrative, and, on the other hand, the rise of a type of “citizen journalist” that is so familiar today.

“The expectations of traditional photojournalism collapsed on November 22, 1963,” said ICP Chief Curator Brian Wallis, who organized the exhibition. “Instead, citizen journalists—really just bystanders with cameras—stepped to the forefront to document this unforgettable moment and its historical significance.”

The objects in this exhibition are drawn from the collection of the International Center of Photography. Included are original stills from eyewitness Abraham Zapruder’s famous film of the shooting; the “backyard photograph” of Lee Harvey Oswald holding weapons, used on the cover of Life; and Mary Moorman’s famous Polaroid taken at the moment of the assassination. The exhibition also includes other news photographs, personal snapshots by bystanders, souvenirs, and books.

In addition, filmmaker Alan Govenar has created two new films, commissioned especially for this exhibition. The first, The Silent Witness Speaks, is a rare interview with assassination eyewitness Mary Moorman, who describes the taking and the significance of her photograph of the shooting. The second, Listening Hard, is a meditation on another kind of bystander response, folk songs about Kennedy that were created in the aftermath of the assassination.

JFK November 22, 1963 provides viewers with an alternate version of history—and of the history of photography—different from the official narrative. In doing so, it considers the historical and aesthetic merits of vernacular photographs, which collectively constitute a kind of folk history of photography. On the fiftieth anniversary of the tragedy, these historical artifacts demonstrate the active role of photography in negotiating trauma and mourning.