Robert Kennedy Jr, First Session

My recent sitting with Robert Kennedy Jr. for The Atlantic was my fifth session with the candidate (this might be record setting), and is a great excuse to showcase our photographic history. Here is what I wrote after the first shoot, for New York Magazine in 1995:

My assistant and I drove to his house in upstate New York early in the morning. There was a frozen lake nearby that was part of the reservoir system he worked to protect, so Bobby suggested that we drill a hole in it and photograph his head sticking out of the ice. I said, “Well, it's worth considering.”

When he went back inside, I turned to my assistant, “Oh my God! That’s incredible!” This is one of three or four times in my career that I’ve just been handed a great shot. My job at that point was to not get in the way of it.

We made this hole in the seven inches of ice and put him in the dry suit, and he was in for about four minutes. We shot three different kinds of film and then pulled him out.

Top Image: Robert Kennedy Jr., Howlands Lake, Mount Kisko, NY. February 26, 1995.

Second Image: BTS shot by Daphne Fitzpatrick.

Third Image: The note taped to the Kennedy home’s front door upon our arrival.

Bottom Image: A tight portrait from the same day.