Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images

by David M. Lubin

Jack & Jackie sailing at Hyannis Port. JFK smiling & confident with the radiant first lady by his side in Dallas shortly before the assassination. The Zapruder film. Jackie mourning at the funeral while her small son salutes the coffin. These images have become larger than life; more than simply photos of a president or of celebrities or of a tragic event, they've an extraordinary power to captivate—today as in their own time. Shooting Kennedy speculates on the allure of these & other iconic images of the Kennedys, using them to illuminate the American cultural landscape. It draws from a spectacularly varied intellectual & visual terrain—neoclassical painting, Victorian poetry, modern art, Hollywood films, TV sitcoms—to show how the public came to identify personally with the Kennedys & how, so doing, they came to understand their place in the world. This mix of art history, cultural history & popular culture offers an evocative look at 20th-century America. Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Donna Reed, Playboy, Jack Ruby, the Rosenbergs, & many more personalities, little-known events & behind-the-scenes stories of the era enliven Lubin's account as he unlocks the meaning of these photos of the Kennedys. Elegantly conceived, witty & intellectually daring, Shooting Kennedy is a stylish meditation on the changing meanings of visual phenomena & the ways they affect our thinking about the past, the present & the process of history.
Preface & Acknowledgments
Twenty-six Seconds
"Gentle Be the Breeze, Calm Be the Waves"
A Marriage like Any Other
Blue Sky, Red Roses
Hit the Road, Jack
Kennedy Shot
The Loneliest Job in the World
Down in the Basement
Salute
Notes
Select Bibliography
Picture Credits
Index

Genres: Philosophy, History, American, Art, Art History

356 pages, Hardcover

First published October 23, 2003

Reviews

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[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was reminiscent of reading C.G. Jung: associations of ideas and motifs all over the place! Unlike Jung, however, here the field isn't the history of religions; here it's popular post-war culture. This being the period of my parents' marriage and my earliest years, I found it all very interesting even though much of the interest was on a rather trivial level such as in being reminded of a television show seen in reruns.

JFK's marriage, presidency and assassination form the thread of this study. Despite wide-ranging excurses, author Lubin never looses his way. Some of his detailed analyses of iconic photographs of the Kennedys were illuminating in that they pointed out details I'd never consciously noticed before. Some of his associations were also fruitful. Some seemed rather far-fetched.

I suppose anyone interested in American culture studies or photography might find this book rewarding, but, given the fact that I'm old enough to remember those days in November, I can hardly make an objective judgment.

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

All around, the histories and connections that Lubin draws in this volume are fascinating. Some of the pop culture or classically artistic connections that he makes are perhaps tenuous at best, but his prose has a way of tying them together sufficiently to make the argument at least relatively cogent. Stylishly written and well-researched, I do wish there were even more photos of the Kennedy family inside, and more analyses of these images, but what's there is quite good in its own right.

[Greg]

Starting with images of Jackie and Jack including the assasination, David Lubin explores late 20th century American culture. I love this kind of thing - vast, associative, intermedia. Fascinating so far.