Description:
One of 15 works selected by the artist to be included in the portfolio, The Alchan Edition,1980
Label Text:
Excerpt from wall label “What Is Love: Selections from the Permanent Collection,” April 19 – June 3, 2007
Instead of calling his work photographs, Elliott Erwitt refers to them as snaps. While the relationship of this word to snapshot is apparent, snap also refers to an element of time, that brief moment that he captures on film. It is precisely this moment that the snap occurs. In this snap Erwitt captured perhaps one of the most public convergences of love and loss, Jacqueline Kennedy at the funeral of her husband John F. Kennedy. Both love and loss for many individuals are private acts, but the nature of President Kennedy’s position pushed Jacqueline Kennedy into a very public stage of mourning. For many Americans the assassination of such a beloved President, and the accompanying associations with Camelot, resulted in a greater loss of innocence. Erwitt had previously photographed President Kennedy in 1961 and 1962. About photographs Erwitt has said, “It’s good when you can’t explain a picture, because that means it’s visual,” a statement which holds true here. - Julie Thomson (M.A. '07)
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=UM+1982.28.10%60 |
