I love to study the work of great photographers. I look at their work with a degree of curiosity, searching for the element that makes their work special. Quite often there is an indefinable quality that sets them apart.
Recently, I have been analysing the work of some of the Magnum Photographers. One of the privileged members of this elite group is Paul Fusco. In 1968 Paul Fusco was assigned to accompany the train carrying Robert Kennedy's coffin from New York to Washington DC. Along the way, Fusco shot images of ordinary American people who paid their respects as the body of the presidential candidate passed. There is one photograph that stopped me. It shows a family who seem to be working on the land - mother, father and five children. They have temporarily halted their work to silently stand in tribute to the assassinated Mr Kennedy. What I find particularly compelling about the image is the condition of the family. Each of them (apart from the mother) appear dirty and dishevelled and it would appear that these were hard times in America, yet this family took time from earning whatever living they could from the land to pay their final respects.
It is the storytelling nature of this image that has caught my attention. The family may not have been working on the land. It could well be that the father was just home from his blue collar job for the day and the kids were dishevelled as they were playing outside (it was summer in America). Each of the family members stand straight and tall with their hands by their side, perhaps at the direction of their father. Whatever the circumstances, you can feel the grief of the nation in that photograph. The family's economic fortunes are perhaps inconsequential, but the photograph begs you to wonder what they were. The photograph was taken from a moving train and is therefore not sharp. The composition is dictated by the proximity of the family to the train and the light is what was available. Paul Fusco was not in control of a large number of the elements but he still took a great photograph - and that's what makes a great photographer.