New Haven, November 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy, Jr. was assassinated fifty years ago (22 November 1963) when I was a graduate student at Yale University.

I heard the alarming radio report while in a cafe across from Paul Rudolph’s then new Art and Architecture building.

My reaction was to immediately purchase several roles of film and wander around New Haven with my Rollieflex.

I took random shots of people and places during the subsequent few hours on that shocking day.

I then made contact prints but did nothing else with them at the time and I have not touched them until now. I admit to periodically wondering if my subjectivity might had clouded objective photography enough to make them uninteresting for anyone else. Also, documenting the day was a somewhat personal way to acknowledge the tragedy. I have now decided that, if ever, this half-century anniversary was an appropriate time to share these photographs.

Here are several of the photos that, with some poignancy, capture that innocent “Camelot” era in a small American city and the stunned despair of an Internationally potent day.

Most images show citizens seemingly frozen in a daze, privately digesting the news or numbingly interacting with strangers.