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Title:
Eyewitness captures Polaroid of moment JFK was shot
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Description:
50 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we hear from Mary Ann Moorman, an eyewitness at Dealey Plaza who shared her story with documentary filmmaker Alan Govenar. His film is currently on display at an exhibit at the International Centre of Photography in NYC entitled: "JFK: A Bystanders View of History."
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(Mary Ann Moorman Krahmer)
Being here today just brings back all the memories.
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Really mixed emotions – more so than the
last few times that I’ve been here.
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I saw a man killed right in front of my eyes.
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(Hari Sreenivasan - PBS Newshour)
When Mary Ann Moorman was 31 years old,
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she learned that the presidential motorcade
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would drive through downtown Dallas.
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She was a fan of the first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy,
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so Mary Ann and a friend, Jean Hill, headed
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to Dealey Plaza to watch the procession.
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(Moorman) My son was in school and I had told him,
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"you can’t be out of school,
but I’ll take a picture for you,"
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never dreaming that that picture would be part of history.
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(Sreenivasan ) Moorman, shown here in a still frame
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of the home movie famously shot by Abraham Zapruder –
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took just one photograph of the President that day —
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(camera shutter)
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a grainy Polaroid snapped right as the
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presidential limousine was passing by.
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(Moorman) As the car got closer to us,
I stepped closer to the curb here,
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and Jean was yelling ‘Mr. President, look this way!”
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And when I put the camera up to my face,
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I wanted to make sure it was as close as
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I could get to him, and I snapped the picture,
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looking through the viewfinder, of course.
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(Sreenivasan) (When the photo was developed, it became clear
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Moorman had pressed the shutter just as the
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46-year-old President was hit and fatally wounded
by a rifle’s bullet.
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It's the only known photograph of the moment the President
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was struck that also captures the “grassy knoll…”
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an image studied endlessly over the years to
determine if another shooter was there.
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(Alan Govenar)
When the motorcade started to pass,
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she realized that she hadn't taken
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the one photograph that she promised her son.
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(Sreenivasan) Alan Govenar is the writer and filmmaker behind
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The Silent Witness Speaks, which documents
Moorman’s story.
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And when I asked her, ‘What did you see
when you looked through the viewfinder?’
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She said she thought there was a gust of wind,
because his hair ‘lifted up.’
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She had no idea that what she was photographing was
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the assassination of the President of the United States.
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Jackie hollored , ‘My God, he’s been shot.”
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We heard that so plain.
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And then just seconds later, he had slumped over
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on Jackie and she started to climb out of the car.
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-Moorman: Well, by that time...
-Sreenivasan : This interview with Moorman was filmed earlier
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this year at Dealey Plaza where the 81-year-old
originally took the iconic picture.
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The film is now being displayed at an exhibit at the
International Center of Photography in New York City.
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It’s called: “JFK : A Bystander’s View of History.”
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(Brian Wallis)
To me, photography was a way to manage
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that grief and that trauma—a way to try
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to get a handle on what really happened.
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(Sreenivasan) Brian Wallis, chief curator, pored over thousands
of photographs for the exhibit.
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(Wallis) One of the things that immediately struck me
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about these photographs– was that sort of up close
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and personal intimacy of these snapshots.
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I was surprised to find that– people were allowed
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tremendous access to the president.
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In fact, the motorcade through Dallas in
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November 1963 was just for that purpose,
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so large crowds could get close to the president.
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The most extraordinary by far is the Polaroid
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taken by Mary Ann Moorman– at the exact instant
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that the President was struck by the first bullet.
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And it all happened in such - just seconds,
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moments really. And it was over with.
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(cars passing by)
