Bernie
Boston: American Photojournalist
by
Therese Mulligan
RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, Rochester,
NY, 2006
112 pp., illus. Paper,$24.99
ISBN: 1-933360-19-4.
Reviewed by Amy Ione
ione@diatrope.com
In 1977, Susan Sontags award winning
book, On Photography, argued that
our capacity to respond to images of war
and atrocity in our rapaciously media-driven
culture were being dulled by "the relentless
diffusion of vulgar and appalling images."
Twenty-five years later, in "Regarding
the Pain of Others," she reversed
her position. With maturity, Sontag concluded
that images turned us from spectators
of events into witnesses. When we are
empathetic viewers, according to Sontag,
the images open our minds and deepen our
comprehension of events within our world.
I do not know if she knew Bernie Bostons
work well, but her later arguments about
how pictures can inspire dissent, foster
violence, or create apathy come to mind
when looking at Bernie Boston: American
Journalist, the catalogue for his
exhibition at Rochester Institute of Technology
(RIT) in October 2006.
Boston, a 1955 graduate of RITs
photojournalism program, has captured
intimate moments of public figures as
well as the nuances of momentous events
for many decades. Beginning at The
Dayton Daily News (Ohio), he later
worked for The Washington Star,
The Los Angeles Times and later
as a White House photographer. His talent
for recording Americas social and
political history is well documented in
his photographs. Like Gordon Parks, whose
image is included in the portrait section
of the catalogue, Boston was uniquely
positioned to show us the shape of history
as it was taking form. Moreover, Bostons
chronicle allows us to contextualize recent
historical events as we witness the imperial
presidency of George W. Bush operating
on the stage today. Among the most compelling
parallels come through the photographs
of the early Civil Rights movement, the
Vietnam demonstrations, and Clintons
Middle East talks.
The first section, Civil Strife,
was so powerful that it immediately drew
me into the publication. Flower People,
an iconic image that placed second in
the 1967 Pulitzer Prize competition, is
included in this section (and serves as
the cover image as well). Taken outside
the Pentagon, the photograph captures
a standoff between a rifle-bearing National
Guard detail and the youthful protestors
of the Vietnam era. Perhaps Bostons
best known photograph, it effectively
records the tensions of that time. Looking
at it forty years later, I find myself
wondering if the Vietnam protestors were
younger than those of today, who increasingly
seem to be of all ages, classes and life-styles.
The Poor Peoples Campaign photographs,
recording a cross-country demonstration
organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
to address social and economic inequality,
are in this section, as well. Particularly
memorable is Bostons ability to
make the viewer think about how social
and political issues intersect, as is
evident in a photograph of Richard Nixon
visiting with a crowd of protestors on
7th Street in Washington DC
after the April 1968 riots. Other striking
images include a 1968 Mule Train of the
Poor Peoples Campaign and a pile
of worn and tattered shoes from Resurrection
City, also associated with Poor Peoples
Campaign (in Washington DC, 1968). In
addition, we meet younger versions of
well known figures (e.g., Jesse
Jackson, H. Rap Brown and Coretta Scott
King) as they embark on their effort to
fight for civil rights.
Section two, The National Stage,
turns to political figures and memorable
moments. These photographs humanize powerful
leaders, highlight key events, and remind
us of the ebbs and flows of history. One
compelling image shows the crowd outside
the White House in 1974, as then President
Nixon tells the American via television
that he is going to resign. Another reveals
a tearful Nancy Reagan during a memorial
service for US Marines killed in an attack
on the barracks in Lebanon (1983). I was
also quite taken with several photographs
from the Clinton era. In one from his
1993 inaugural ceremony, Boston caught
a young Chelsea Clinton picking up the
notes of her fathers speech after
they fell from the lectern. In addition,
I was moved to see President Clintons
image looking on at Israels Yitzhak
Rabin and the PLOs Yassar Arafat
as they shake hands after signing the
Middle East Peace Accord (Oslo, Norway,
September 13, 1993). There was so much
hope in their gesture! The sense that
some of the diplomatic progress of the
late twentieth century has retrenched
in the twenty-first was magnified by the
final image, a view of participants in
Hands Across America, a 1986 event,
in the third section, Features and
Portraits. Here Boston pictures events
that range from Beatle concerts and battle
re-enactments to Pope John Paul II giving
a stern look as he answers questions from
the press in 1979.
Bernie Boston: American Photojournalist
demonstrates the ability of this photographer
to intuitively capture momentous events
and personal details. The photographs
are so much a part of recent history that
they also encouraged me to question facts
that sometimes seem etched in my mind.
Looking at Nixon shaking hands with protestors
after the Washington riots, for example,
reminded me that Watergate was only a
part of his legacy. While he was undoubtedly
as politically driven as others, when
I saw this photograph I thought of George
W. Bush. More specifically, I recalled
how Bush ignored the people in the Superdome
during the Hurricane Katrina debacle,
preferring to look down at the devastation
from his airplane rather than exposing
himself to it in person. Similarly, the
photograph of Afghanistan protestors burning
a Soviet flag at the Russian Embassy in
1982 reminded me of how the US was involved
in arming and training people in the fight
against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Admittedly, I am at a loss as how best
to characterize the many levels of reflection
the images evoked. Suffice to say, this
first-ever survey of Bostons groundbreaking
photojournalistic career is a fine tribute
to his career. Indeed, there is little
to criticize in this book. The only thought
that comes to mind is its slim size, which
is, of course, more of a compliment. I
liked this catalogue so much that I wished
there was more of it. RIT has offered
a wonderful tribute to their alumnus,
Bernie Boston. Definitely, read the book,
or go to http://wally.rit.edu/cary/CP_publications/CP_BernieBoston.html
to see some of his images.