My JFK Project or Death By Holga: 11.22.63 will the a book of Holga images relating to the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. I feel that anybody can hunt down all the usual suspects, places and things associated with the assassination, but only a true Holga using nut like myself would be willing to do this with a film camera.
My goal is to have the book ready for the 50th anniversary of the assassination in November 2013. This gives me lots of time to take photographs and get the book published. My project was started in the summer of 2010.
Most of the people involved with the Kennedy presidency, City of Dallas or the assassination will most likely be deceased. A lot of time will be spend hunting graveyards and finding tombstones.
Some of the most notable people are buried in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. We have Lee Harvey Oswald, Judge Sarah Hughes, Abraham Zapruder, Officer J.D. Tippit, Congressman Sam Rayburn, Kenneth Lyon, Max E. Causey, David Byrd, Mayor Earle Cabell, Chief Jesse Curry and prosecutor Henry M. Wade.
Places to photograph include Dallas Love Field, Texas School Book Depository, Dallas Police Headquarters, Dallas Trade Mart, Hotel Texas in Fort Worth (Hilton) and Parkland Hospital.
The biggest cache of people will be Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. There I will find President and Mrs. Kennedy, brothers Robert and Edward, Chief Justice Warren and others from the Kennedy presidency. Also at Arlington National Cemetery is my grandfather, Stephen J. Roman Sr.
If this sound like a short book, then you haven’t thought of all the people involved. The photographic possibilities are nearly endless.
Connections to the Past
Death By Holga: 11.22.63 will be more than just a photograph book of cemeteries and tombstones. This book will help average American, like myself, make a connection to one of the most horrific moments in history. Most people over the age of 50 know where they were when President Kennedy was shot. But most people don’t know how their lives have been tied to the Kennedy presidency.
For example, I was born in March of 1970. Nine months earlier Niel Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. Although my parents deny it, I am the result of this historic event. Nine years earlier, President Kennedy gave a couple of monumental speeches about landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.
So, who do I have to thank for my existence? Mom, Dad, Armstrong, Aldrin, Kennedy, or some speech writer with a really active imagination.
That’s my link (unlikely but not implausible) to the Kennedy presidency. What’s yours?
