Born on April 8, 1934, Jackson grew up in Dallas. His interest in photography began when he was 12 or 13. An aunt gave him a Baby Brownie Special camera, and a family cat became one of his first subjects. When Jackson turned 14, his interest became more serious. Another aunt gave him an Argus C-3 35mm camera. Jackson's first news photo was of a double fatality crash in northern Dallas. Jackson persuaded his father to drive him to the scene of the crash. His second news photo was of an airplane crash at Love Field.[4] Jackson attended Highland Park High School, and later Southern Methodist University, leaving the university in 1957.[5]
His photography interest grew when he began photographing sports car racing. He joined the 36th Infantry National Guard. While in the Army, Jackson became a photographer for an Army general.[4] In August 1960, the Dallas Times Herald hired him.[5]
November 1963
Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald, capturing the instant of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey OswaldJack Beers's picture, taken just a second prior to Jackson's
On November 22, 1963, Jackson was assigned to cover the arrival of President John F. Kennedy at Dallas Love Field and his motorcade through the city. Jackson and many other journalists traveled with the President and first lady from the airport. He was in the eighth vehicle behind the presidential limousine as the motorcade headed down Elm Street. Jackson was sitting atop the back seat of the convertible as the motorcade approached Dealey Plaza. He was in the process of changing film when the shots were fired; but his camera was empty. He had just removed a roll of film to hand-off to another newspaper employee, and had not yet reloaded. However, he was among the few people who thought that they saw a rifle barrel in the window of the book depository. After the assassination, Jackson remained in Dealey Plaza, but took no more photos, something he later regretted.[1]
Two days later, Jackson was told to go to the police station to photograph the transfer of Oswald to the county jail. Using his Nikon S3 35mm rangefinder camera with a strobe[6] and using Kodak Tri-X film,[7] During the transfer, Oswald was shot and mortally wounded by Jack Ruby in the Dallas police station garage. Jackson photographed the event the instant after Ruby shot Oswald. In his photo, Ruby’s gun has the signs of muzzle flash and smoke rings, and Oswald is impacted by the bullet, his eyes are clenched shut with his mouth opened wide to scream in pain in an anguished expression and his manacled hands are moving to clutch at his stomach, while Dallas police detective Jim Leavelle who was handcuffed to Oswald, reacts.[1] In March 1964, Jackson was called to testify in front of the Warren Commission.[8]
Jackson's colleague Jack Beers at The Dallas Morning News took an almost identical photo, but six-tenths of a second earlier, the instant before Ruby fired. Beers was also called to testify in front of the Warren Commission.[9]
Later life
In later life, Jackson was a staff photographer for the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. He retired from the Gazette in 1999. He has three daughters, two sons from his wife's previous marriage and a son with his current wife. As of November 2013,[update] he has 10 grandchildren[4] and resides in Manitou Springs, Colorado.[4][1]
In 2021, on the fifty-eighth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, Jackson said "Every photographer would like to shoot an image that has meaning. I hated to see it happen in Dallas. But I was glad that I was able to cover a moment in history, in time."[10]
↑"Photographer snapped Oswald's murder a hair too soon, lost Pulitzer, place in history to rival". Dallas News. 2002-06-30. Retrieved 2025-01-27. Jackson says, timing was paramount: 1963 technology required the use of strobe lights, which took up to five seconds to recycle each time the shutter snapped. Motor-driven cameras, which advance the frames rapidly, existed in 1963, says Mr. Jackson, but no one in the basement was using one.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
