Inspiring Images: Stan Stearns’ “The Salute”

Inspiring Image

Over the past few weeks I have seen many programs and articles based on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Growing up Catholic I have always been drawn to his story. There are many images that were taken on November 22, 1963 that you would call iconic. For some reason though I didn’t want to get into that day. I thought that I would pick this image that was taken by Stan Stearns 50 years ago today. He was part of a pool of 75 photographers crammed together to cover the casket at St. Matthew’s Church. He said that he was one of the only photographers with a long lens. He focused his 200mm lens on Jackie. When he saw Jackie bend down and whisper to John Jr. he was ready. He captured the young man saluting his fathers casket, and made the image of the day. It was frame one of a 36 image roll of film. He would not make another image that day. He ran to his office with one frame to develop it himself. You can’t trust history to someone else. His editor was not happy with him as he was supposed to follow the casket all the way to Arlington National Cemetery. Once his editor saw the photo he knew that it was a winner. Out of the 75 photographers Stan was the only one to capture this moment.

I picked this photo for today for many reasons, but the most important is the fact that at a major event this photographer waited until the right moment to make his picture. Even in the days of film with 36 images per roll he did not use up the rest of the roll. He made the picture that tells the story of the day. I think that in the digital age it is far too easy to just motor drive through an event. Sometimes while motor driving you actually miss the moment. This is a great example of sitting on a picture and waiting for it to come to you.