[.ca] Remembering Jack: Intimate and Unseen Photographs of the ... (ISBN 0821257889)

very intimate photographs of the whole kennedy clan:
A real treasure of intimate photographs of the entire kennedy clan by the photographers who was granted access to them before jfk became president. this book is a treasure.

one of the best book i ever seen!!:
to all kennedy fans, buy it! there are a lot of pictures that are very rare, we can see the all family particularly rfk jfk and jackie kennedy. I loved the pictures of rfk and kids, there are very touching, and we can how much he loved his children. there is a good introduction too. soif you want a great tirbute of the late president kennnedy buy it!

JFK and image projection:
A captivating record, frozen in time, of a 'brief, shining moment'. The late Hugh Sidey, as usual, gives thought-provoking introductory comments. We see photos which Kennedy approved, and some which he rejected for publication. JFK happy, JFK pensive, JFK utterly exhausted; JFK before millions on TV; JFK munching in a diner during the bleak early primary season. This book is all about the politics of image. To some extent we get behind the image projection process. The words of Joseph Kennedy Senior come to mind: 'It's not what you are, it's what people think you are.' Of course, these fascinating photos do not give a complete picture of who JFK was. After all, JFK's image projection on a carefully crafted scale, go back to his 1946 Congressional campaign, bankrolled by Joseph Kennedy Senior: not for nothing did the senior Kennedy spend time in Hollywood. The book is hard to put down, though.

A Wonderful Tribute:
This volume is first rate not only for enthusiasts of President Kennedy but also for those interested in photo journalism and the period from the late 1950's through to the early 1960's. Despite a review stating that there is not much new here, I did not find that the case. As stated on the jacket, there are indeed over 300 unseen photographs. Of course, many of the photos are from a sequence of photos taken, with most of us being familiar with the image that Jacques Lowe chose for publication and general release. However, It is very revealing to see the sequence of photos from which, for example, the photo used on the cover of Richard Reeves 1993 book was chosen. The many moods of John Kennedy are captured and it is as if for a brief moment he is once again with us. Hugh Sidey provides a first rate narrative and the books production values are exquisite. Given the recent death of Jacques Lowe, the book is also a final (unfortunately) rememberence of this special relationship between 2 men which produced perhaps the most intimate photographed record of a President that we are ever likely to see in our lifetime. It is at times as if you are sitting in the Oval office with President Kennedy on any given day. I cannot recall any other President being this comfortable in his own skin and allowing such access. For the many admirers of the late President, this book will fill your eyes with tears and your heart with hope.

A Heartfelt Tribute to a Great Kennedy:
The "intimate and unseen photographs of the Kennedys" taken by the family's entrusted photographer Jacques Lowe starts off as just another photo album dedicated to a great president whose charismatic glow is still alive today. But as one intimate sequence of photographs builds up on another, and through a series of brief but perceptive chapter commentaries provided by Hugh Sidey, the veteran journalist who covered the Kennedy presidency like perhaps no one else did, we are pulled into an emotional time-warp which makes us privy to many crucial moments in JFK's life and career. We become privileged witnesses to many public and private moments in a world leader's life. At the end of the book one can't help but wonder if it was indeed some sort of divine providence that saved Lowe's contact sheets from the ravages of the Sept 11 attack that destroyed the original negatives kept at a safe inside the World Trade Center. These photographs reproduced after Lowe's death in May 2001 by his daughter from those contact sheets are a wistful testimony to a time when everything looked possible under the energetic leadership of the 45-year-old JFK. There are two aspects of this album that I really loved. 1) Besides the individual single B & W frames of JFK, RFK and many other family members in never-before-seen settings, the album also provides the original contact sheets from which the individual frames were selected. These sheets, besides carrying the artist's original red markings and thus providing us with a visual commentary on Lowe's uncompromising aesthetic standards, also do present us a fascinating sequence of snapshots, each showing JFK or another Kennedy with a slightly different facial gesture, with an immediately related but different interaction in the same setting, thus providing us with an unedited kaleidoscopic feel for a moment long vanished in time. Those series of unpublished and "discarded" frames make the viewer the proverbial fly-on-the-wall who can judge the true context of the situation for him/herself. They take us one step beyond the polished and well-balanced press photos and enter the back-stage of many unforgettable moments from American political history. 2) We all remember JFK for his spectacular rise to power, his election as the youngest President in U.S. history, his memorable words and vision, and the great tragedy of November 22, 1963. But how many of us remember "Jack" early in his career, when perhaps he also had his own doubts about whether he could pursue the path that he and his family set for himself? Those early campaign trail photos that depict a lonely JFK, sometimes lost in his thoughts, sometimes braving his predicament with his trademark thousand-watt smile, were my favorites in the whole album. For example: JFK visiting Ona, West Virginia (p.111), talking to miners on a mid-night shift change (p.107), welcomed in Portland, Oregon by only three supporters in 1959 (p.85), eating breakfast unnoticed at a diner in Oregon with Mrs. Kennedy and brother-in-law Steve Smith (p.79), and staring into the water in Coos Bay, Oregon (p.75) are some of my favorite "private JFK" photos. In my judgment, they alone are worth the cover price of this unique historic compilation. Makes a perfect gift for any history buff at any time of the year.