Burt Glinn New York state senator Robert Francis Kennedy campaigning. Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. 1968.
“In 1968, Burt spent many weeks photographing Bobby Kennedy as he travelled around the country during t
(...) he Presidential campaign, as well as at Hickory Hill, his home in Arlington, Virginia, where Kennedy and Ethel raised their large family of eleven children.
The day he took this photo in Indianapolis, the press photographers were all crowded into the backs of trucks behind and ahead of RFK’s convertible. Bobby yelled to Burt, who was about to board one of the trucks: ‘Hey Burt, come with us, plenty of room in the back!’
They had been at Harvard together back in the late 1940s. As soon as Burt, his many cameras, and his usual well-worn and greased trench coat got into the car, the photographers ahead of them started squealing, ‘Hey Glinn, get down, you’re ruining the picture!’ He did as he was told and (from his new position lying down in the back of the campaign convertible) he looked up — and there they were! Ethel and Bobby in the rear view mirror.
Tragically, a week later, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles by Palestinian militant Sirhan Sirhan. 1968 was to be an extremely violent year in our country’s politics.”
– Elena Glinn, Estate of Burt Glinn © Burt Glinn | Magnum Photos
