Sometimes, a photojournalist has the opportunity (in some cases, it can’t quite be called “luck”) to take a photograph that becomes part of history.
Photojournalist Bill Eppridge captured Robert F. Kennedy in every possible political setting: speaking through a bullhorn, signing autographs, hanging off the back of a campaign convertible, extending his hand to adoring crowds.
He also took the iconic photograph of the senator lying on the floor of the kitchen pantry at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5, 1968. Kennedy, who had been shot by Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan, would die early the next morning.
The night of the shooting, Eppridge says, his vocation shifted from photojournalist to historian. He recounts his years with the senator in his new book, A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties.
RFK’s Shooting Turned Photographer into Historian (Morning Edition, June 6, 2008)
The book: A Time it Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties
