The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family by
Shannon Thomas Perich
Christmas Gift
In the early 1960s, Richard Avedon was commissioned by Harpers
Bazaar to create Observations, a column that consisted of a series of nine
photographic essays. The subject of the first essay was John F. Kennedy
and his young family, who sat for formal black-and-white portraits just three
weeks prior to Kennedys presidential inauguration. Six images appeared in
the magazines February 1961 issue.
That same day, Avedon created more informal color portraits of
Kennedy and his family at the Kennedy compound in Palm Beach. One of
these images ran as the cover of LOOK magazines February 28 issue,
with photographs by Avedon inside. Just before the magazine hit the
newsstands and was delivered to over 6.5 million people, a set of
photographs, comprised mostly of the LOOK images, was released by the
White House and appeared in newspapers across the country.
During his lifetime, Richard Avedon donated more than two hundred
images to the Smithsonian Institution, including all of the photographs of
the Kennedy family sitting for Harpers Bazaar. Smithsonian curator
Shannon Thomas Perich has culled more than seventy-five images from
that donation for The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family, making these
stunning photographs available for view for the first time. Perichs
introductory essay--accompanied by a wealth of archival photographs of
both Avedon and the Kennedy family--provides historical background on
the two sittings within a political and cultural context and critically examines
the work of one of the finest photographers of the twentieth century. A
foreword by Robert Dallek, distinguished historian and author of the bet-
selling An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, provides

authoritative and compelling insight to one of the most fascinating
presidents in American history.
Personal Review: The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family by
Shannon Thomas Perich
This majestic and generous book provides prodigiously much for every
American, for every photographer, for any historian, for all graphic artists.
Richard Avedon served as a fashion photographer in that time. His final
works frequently found place in the The New Yorker (1-year) magazine on
assignment, mainly very stark images, honest, one would say, often
approaching the grotesque. A bare full face portrait of this late period, with
chest, might reveal nakedly far more than the subject knew, or rather,
precisely as the subject hoped. We may find such cruel portraiture in
Richard Avedon Portraits and several other collections, including a study
by the brilliant New Yorker critic of the arts John Lahr in his Performance:
Richard Avedon.
Here we find Avedon before we were thrust all into the madness and
chaos of despair after the assassinations, the cruelty which produced his
later true work. Here we find Avedon the artist of fashion, who
nevertheless maintains an edge to it all, a keen edge of impish near-
perversity. As Mrs. Kennedy stands in a wonderful formal satin white gown
upon the large roll of white paper formal photography uses to cover both
wall and, curving, floor, we see the holes stepped through the paper by
high heels and the passing Caroline. We see in the cover photograph the
great JFK, weeks from his First Inauguration, with a crooked necktie which
the soon-to-be First Lady could so easily and naturally have straightened.
There was such a thing as a tie clasp as well.
Perich wonderfully nevertheless reveals the secrets of the darkroom which
brought these rough shots into presentable shape for publication in the
leading magazines of the day. We see the original image alongside the
image as published, with explanation of the processes involved. The heel
marks through the paper disappear, and several other flaws in the negative
image give way to great art. This chapter in itself gives life to Ansel Adam's
adage that photography begins in the darkroom. The darkroom now has
mostly disappeared in this age of DSLR and photo software; this chapter
reveals the arduous alchemic labors of the darkroom, the burning, the
dodging, which gave birth to such wonderful and eternal art.
Any photographer therefore can learn much from studying carefully with
attention these photographs as such, as the fruit of careful photography, of
technique as well as the art of portraiture done properly, yes with
complexity and keen honesty, while not to the extremes of his later years. I
have managed to do much with low budget these past few years thanks to
the Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II

AF-S DX and 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens with 2
Nikon School DVD acquired here upon the amazon, and achieved
publication weekly at least, locally, and it is the study of portraiture such as
this which informs us so much more than such guides as Digital Wedding
Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories, for example, as here we truly
see a master photographer at work, and might reverse-engineer some
technique, if not memory of composition.
And yet this wonderful work here presented is so much more than a simple
demonstration of photography. We see here the Kennedys, at their zenith,
weeks from the White House, and we are very grateful for this generous
presentation of the finest subjects for Avedon's art.
The book itself is ten by eleven inches and beautifully designed, black and
white and grays throughout to reflect the Black and White photography,
with a strong canary yellow for the inside covers and chapter separations.
Beautifully and fittingly designed for this subject, with elegance and a noble
restraint, this is a book worthy of space not upon a coffee table but a
special lectern, to be seen and to be studied, to be viewed as the iconic
collection it is, for this is America's sacred family, at home and at peace
with one another and with us, the viewer. These are truly images to
contemplate in peace, in recollection, in prayer, for souls, for wholeness,
for healing, for grief, for hope, for peace, at last, now that we may once
exhale in this present The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the
American Dream (Vintage).
See this now. And read as well the recent reflections of James Douglass in
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.
Read here the writings prepared for this book by Associate Smithsonian
National Musuem of American History curator Shannon Thomas Perich of
the Photographic History Collection, to which Avedon generously donated
his work. Additional writings are by Professor Robert Dalleck (of UCLA,
Oxford, BU, and Columbia), author of An Unfinished Life: John F.
Kennedy, 1917-1963. The most moving words here printed of course come
from our President, from Avedon, who confides: "In a very charming way,
he was ill at ease . . . Jacqueline said he always looks his best when he's
talking to a crowd, and freezes up when he has his portrait taken." Of Mrs.
Kennedy he writes: "Jacqueline is ravishing. Today she's the most
beautiful woman in the world. She has a great deal in common with top
movie stars - She knows when to hold herself back while everyone else
you know gives too much of themselves at one time. So when she comes
out, it's a great tour de
force."
and from Mrs. Kennedy, who here, among other pearls, is quoted:
"Watching a child grow, guiding him, learning new ways to present life's
wonderful panorama of events and scenes to him - all this is so wonderful
for the parent." and "The quality I admire the most in my husband is his

intellectual curiosity - and that is the quality we both wish to encourage in
our children." Too few years later he was gone, for good.
A great, a terrible, a wonderful, a beautiful book to have and to hold, now
and forever.
For me the most touching series of raw straight-from-negative prints
(unprocessed images not doctored in the darkroom - it makes you distrust
any image, especially now with computer manipulations) is Caroline
holding what she then called the "kissing baby" and her father holding her
standing on his lap. With this please hear Caroline's wonderful anthology
Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, The, in particular the
unabridged audiobook version.
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