NEW YORK (djc) – Jacques Lowe an internationally renowned photographer and photo journalist best known for his portraiture of the leading personalities of our time and pictures of the Kennedy family, died Saturday in Manhattan. He was 71.
In 1956, through his work, he befriended Robert F. Kennedy who had been appointed majority counsel to the McClellan Committee. In 1958 Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, who admired his work, asked him to photograph his “other son, Jack.”
That assignment led to his becoming the Official Campaign Photographer of John F. Kennedy’s quest for the presidency and, when elected, the personal photographer of President Kennedy. Although offered the White House Photographer’s job Lowe declined, but the president asked him to “stick around and record my administration. Don’t worry, I’ll make it worth your while.”
His work for the campaign, the Kennedy White House, and the Kennedy family has resulted in six books, numerous exhibitions from the USA to Moscow, several prime time television shows, and some 150 major magazine pieces and covers. Reviewers have credited Lowe’s “natural, warm, and intimate images of the president and his family and the workings of the presidency with keeping alive the Kennedy flame for generations yet to come.”
In 1968, following the assassination of his friend Bobby Kennedy, Lowe sold his very successful studio and moved to France. “I couldn’t deal with these tragedies anymore,” Lowe says “I had to get out.” He stayed for eighteen years, during which time he more or less gave up photography.
Returning to New York, Lowe again turned to photography with a passion. He has published over thirty books, including volumes about London’s financial center, “The City,” Pope John Paul II’s travels to South America, Pilgrimage, Persepolis, the fabled city in Iran and Kentucky a loving view of that state.
“Lowe’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Elysée Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, the European Center of Photography in Paris, the Kennedy Library Museum in Boston, the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, Texas, as well as in hundreds of private and institutional collections.
He has won numerous awards from Art Director’s Clubs, the Urban League, and other human rights organizations. In 1998, he was honored with the Crystal Eagle Award for Impact on Photo Journalism, a lifetime achievement award granted by the School of Journalism, University of Missouri and the Eastman Kodak Company. It was only the fourth time the award has been granted.
Some of Lowe’s pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy are on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lowe is survived by five children.
