50 Years...

I'm sitting outside again, on my front step, with my laptop, my cup of tea and Maxie.  Today is Saturday 23 November 2013.  In America today, it's still the 22nd of November.  This weekend marks the anniversaries of two events that occurred before I was born.  

The first even is one that I have always felt fascinated and sad about.  It makes me reflect on an era in American and world politics that was game changing, and life changing for many.  And importantly for me, it was an era where the power of the still image has never more apparent.  Today marks the  50th anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kenndy (or JFK as he is often referred to).

I have some books on JFK, including one that is precious to me, by his personal photographer, Jacques Lowe.  It's called "Remembering Jack".  It is a great book to read while curled up on the lounge with a glass of red wine.  It reminds us that great photography will always have a place in society.   I think his work inspired me, long ago, to want to be a photographer.  I have always held a little ambition to want to work in the White House as a photographer.  I'm sure it's something that I'll never realise, but it doesn't stop me from thinking about the enormous importance of creating a library such as the Kennedy archives.  It really was a very special achievement by some amazing photographers.

This is a link to ABC Online's coverage.  There's some lovely material in it, a gallery, and even condolence letters written to Jackie Kennedy:


This one has some good material too, with clips from the day it happened:


The other event is of course one that we are wildly excited about, and it's gripping the world in a little bit of Time Lord Fever.  It's of course the 50th anniversary of the screening of the very first episode of Doctor Who.  An event which, 50 years, was of course completely overshadowed by the terrible events in America.  As I wrote yesterday, even Google has caught Time Lord Fever. 

And of the other matters happening in our lives?  Fortunately I phoned two of the real estate agents who are managing the houses we are applying for to check how things were going, and to my dismay the emails I'd sent on Wednesday with our applications hadn't arrived.  My heart dropped, but the nice thing is that they actually seem very keen to get them, and have been waiting on them, and I liked that a lot.  With one actually saying 'we're very keen to get your application'.  So it involved a last minute trip to the Post Office to use the old method of faxing.  Stupidly expensive it would appear, but necessary.  And my lovely post officer man, who tells me I am his favourite customer, said 'but I won't see you anymore', to which I replied that I would be back and forth a bit to bring the kids back on visits and to see my brother and nephews, and on route to visiting my Mum in Sydney, etc.  And when I said it was nice to get comments like I had from the real estate agent, due to my worries about how we will rank with me being self employed and on my own with 2 young children, he pointed to me and said 'oh, hello, FAMOUS!!!', which made me laugh..  I'm not very famous, but my name is closely associated with a very famous and fabulous horse, and that's enough for me...

From Jacques Lowe's book "Remembering Jack".

Comments

  1. Anne SNovember 23, 2013 at 4:58 PM

    I remember where I was when Kennedy died. I was a high school student at the time in Wangaratta. It came over the radio at breakfast before school, so I was in the kitchen at our house there.

    As for Doctor Who, I've pretty well watched it from the first series back in the 1960s.

    On the subject of photography I highly recommend the Edward Steichen exhibition at the Victorian National Gallery. Not only do you get to see wonderful photographs, but stunning costumes from the 1920s and 30s. The exhibition will still be on when you move to Melbourne, so you'll have till 2nd March to see it.

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