Caption: Wikipedia
Date: 22 November 1963
Source: JFK-Motorcadee.gif, Penn Jones Photographs. Baylor University Collections of Political Materials. Waco, Texas
Author: Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News
Work in public domain; copyright expired in 1991 without renewal. First published on 24 November 1963.
This is one of several well-known photographs of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) immediately before his assassination in Dallas in 1963. The history of the day is inextricably linked to the images of the motorcade, which have an additional potency because of what happened after the photographer pressed the shutter. If JFK had not been shot it is entirely possible that this picture would have been forgotten.
This essay will present an analysis of this image and then consider it in the light of Barthes’ and Sartre’s views about news photographs.