Paul Fusco

author · photographer

American^[2,3] b. 2 August 1930, Leominster, Massachusetts, USA^[1,2,4] d. 21 July 2020, San Anselmo, California, USA^[3,5] active 1951–2020

Paul Fusco was a distinguished American photojournalist and photographer renowned for capturing some of the most significant historical moments of the 20th century. He began his career in the 1950s, serving as a photographer with the United States Army Signal Corps in Korea. He later worked for Look magazine before joining the prestigious Magnum Photos agency in 1973. Fusco is perhaps most widely recognized for his 'RFK Funeral Train' series, which documents the funeral procession of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. His work is celebrated for its empathetic and nuanced portrayal of collective mourning and public grief, characterized by a sensitive gaze on the human impact of major historical events. His other notable documentary work includes coverage of the 1966 Delano Grape Strike and the human toll of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. He died in 2020 at the age of 89.^[1,2,3,4,5]

• public mourning
• photojournalism
• historical events
• collective grief