20x200

FUP1968010K003 + FUP1968010K052 by Paul Fusco

Buenos dias from Cadaqués, a little slice of Catalonian heaven on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. I'm here on vacation, celebrating a milestone birthday of a very dear friend, but a break in festivities is well warranted for today's editions. The monumental body of work they're drawn from—Paul Fusco's RFK Funeral Train—is historically significant and has had enormous personal significance to me as well, fueling my determination to see them released as editions on 20x200. (I can't deny that this determination felt Quixotic at times.) That they're actually being offered took quite a bit more than sheer determination, however. Gratitude and thanks go to Susan Meiselas,* a major photographer in her own right and the President of the Magnum Foundation, who smoothed and sped the path to their creation as editions benefiting this venerable organization.

FUP1968010K003 by Paul Fusco

I've always considered myself to have a relatively firm grasp on the story surrounding RFK's assassination, and of the other major events that came before and after it. A major arc of our recent history, I had vague knowledge of its location, the assassin and the public gatherings and national mourning that it precipitated. ‪Missing from all that was true understanding of what it actually meant—comprehension of its importance‬. That understanding came much later, on the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's death, an epiphany that was unlocked by the tremendously talented Paul Fusco, who captured, frame by frame, the nation's grief as it unfolded alongside the railway tracks that led Kennedy's body to its final resting place.

Encountered first online, via a New York Times slideshow, the Kodachrome images hit me like a proverbial ton of bricks. I immediately set to IMing friends and/or forwarding links to everyone I knew. For weeks (actually years…) on end, I was likely to recommend it to any person who I had a conversation with. I seriously considered buying a print from Danziger Projects, reckless as such a consideration was in light of my financial instability, wanting so very badly to support the artist who made this work, and to thank James Danziger himself for mounting the brilliantly curated exhibition that he did. I couldn't wait to get Aperture's then forthcoming monograph into my hot little hands.

FUP1968010K052 by Paul Fusco

Discovering Fusco's tremendous body of work viscerally and urgently connected me to an event that was until then a fuzzy part of a somewhat distant history. Once made, that connection led to having the most incredible conversations with people about their connections with it. It was an event so seismic, so irreversible in terms of a tamping out a certain kind of optimism and hope, and one that most certainly changed the course of history. The sheer number of people who gathered to watch the train's slow progression from NYC to D.C. is its tragedy writ large, but each individual face in those crowds tells its story in a different, quiet and unsettlingly affecting way.

It's an incredible honor to have the opportunity to share that work with all of you today, and to offer two photographs from the series as 20x200 editions. A significant portion of the proceeds from these editions will benefit the Magnum Foundation. We worked closely with Mr. Fusco himself to select FUP1968010K003 and FUP1968010K052, which are being offered only as a pair.

* Susan led the charge, but huge thanks are also due to John Jacobs, Whitney Johnson, Megan Parker, the always incredible 20x200 team and, of course, Mr. Paul Fusco himself, whom Sara and I had the great pleasure of collaborating with to select images for the series.