Eric writes to ask a question about the Zapruder film that I cannot answer. Maybe someone else knows. Who is the man with the camera?
Excerpt from Eric’s email:
In all the time I’ve spent researching the Kennedy assassination,
reading books, digging through websites and reading materials online,
visiting forums/discussion groups where the JFK assassination is
discussed, and I have never seen or read or heard a reference to who these
guys are or anybody even ask the question. Surely after all these
years I cannot be the first one to have seen these (what appear to be
professional photographers) and wondered who in the hell are they?
These two men are at/in that moment… They are at that point in time
and space where history is being made… They are witnessing a POTUS
being killed through professional lenses, and they don’t appear to be
anywhere near panicked. How is it these two old guys in suits aren’t
diving off trying to avoid bullets and death like everybody else?
These men don’t look surprised at all in my view, they look like they
had foreknowledge, like they knew it was going to happen right there
and that’s why they were right there.
The one man might be Orville Nix……Google “Orville Nix photo” & you’ll see Jackie attending to JFK……He was directly opposite Zapruder……
I didn’t know about Richard Bothun but I knew it was James Altgens. Thanks for that. BTW, I fully agree with your view on the Trask book
Paul Byrne
Could it be James Altgens
James Altgens
The man on the right is Jim Altgens, the AP photographer who got several memorable photos of the assassination. The man on the left is Richard Bothun, a railroad employee who just happened to bring his camera to work that day.
The best work on the photographers present at Dealey Plaza that day is Pictures of the Pain by Richard Trask. This frame is reproduced in his book, and the identification made, on p. 315.
The man on the right is Associated Press photographer James Altgens. I don’t know who the other one is.