Tot Zover

Fusco looks back from the train and sees through his lens a cross section of the American people, who at the time seemed to have lost all hope. After John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, a third promising figure was killed.

These photos by Paul Fusco have long been hidden in the United States and were first published in George Magazine in 1998, more than thirty years later. And afterwards in London, 2007. The photos are now on display for the second time in Europe.

Unconditional Dedication

Normally a train journey from New York to Washington takes four hours, but this train took twice as long because of the crowds of people along the track. Fusco sees hundreds of thousands of people paying one last tribute to their beloved presidential candidate. They are a cross-section of the American people. The poor and rich pass by, black and white, people in uniform, people with bare bodies, and nuns.

The photos show that people all show genuine emotions for a man that they did not know up close, but who they held close in their hearts. You see that some embrace each other and seek support in their grief. And there are also happy faces, because they are getting a chance to show their love for a man who was suddenly taken from them. One man solemnly says goodbye with one hand on his heart. Another waves and a few salute, whether they are a farmer's son or a sheriff. Fusco's  pictures show the desperation and devotion of the American people to a family that stood for hope and a better future.

As with the funerals of American presidents such as Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower, the young presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is led through grieving people by train. Three days earlier, on June 5, 1968, Kennedy was murdered in a Los Angeles hotel shortly after midnight. He gave a speech of thanks for his victory in the California primaries and intended to leave the hotel with his guards through the back entrance. When he shook hands with the hotel staff there - according to the official account - Sirhan Sirhan unexpectedly popped up and fired several bullets up close. Despite being pulled back by a guard, Kennedy was hit in the head and armpit. A day later he died in a hospital.

Robert F. Kennedy died shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, the third influential man in five years to be publicly murdered. His death may have made less of an impression in our country and the rest of Europe than the murders of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., but for many in the United States this was the attack that took away all hope.

Erik Kessels 'Funeral Train' is the second in a series of exhibitions curated by guest curator Erik Kessels for Museum Tot Zover. The others are "Trace Elements" by Seiichi Furuya and "Bedrooms of the Fallen" by Ashley Gilbertson. Kessels (1966) is co-founder and creative director of  the communication agency KesselsKramer and has previously published photo books and magazines such as "In almost every picture", "Wonder", "Bangkok Beauties" and "Useful Photography".