Honestly, if you look at the photos from Kennedy assassination today, they feel like they’re from another planet. Black and white grain. Kodachrome smears. But for the people standing in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, it was just a Friday. A bright, windy Dallas afternoon.
Most people think there’s just the Zapruder film and maybe that one shot of the fence. Wrong. There were dozens of cameras clicking away. Some belonged to professionals like Ike Altgens. Others were held by dads trying to get a nice shot for their kids.
What’s wild is how these images became more than just pictures. They became evidence. Rorschach tests. Pieces of a puzzle that, 60-plus years later, we’re still trying to shove into place.
The Professional Who Didn't Blink: Ike Altgens
Ike Altgens was a pro. He worked for the Associated Press and was standing right on Elm Street. While everyone else was diving for the grass, Ike kept his finger on the shutter.
His most famous shot is known as Altgens 6.
It’s chilling. You see the motorcade from the front. JFK is visible through the windshield, his hands starting to reach for his throat. Behind him, you can see the Texas School Book Depository.
The Doorway Mystery
This photo nearly broke the internet before the internet existed. If you zoom in on the doorway of the Depository, there’s a guy standing there who looks exactly like Lee Harvey Oswald.
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People lost their minds. "How could he be the shooter if he's standing in the doorway?"
Eventually, investigators identified him as Billy Lovelady, another Depository employee. But for years, that one grainy face in the background of a professional press photo fueled a thousand theories. It shows you how much power a single frame can hold when the stakes are literally historical.
The Zapruder Film: 26 Seconds of Chaos
You can't talk about photos from Kennedy assassination without the big one. Abraham Zapruder.
He was a dressmaker. He almost didn't even bring his camera that day because it was raining earlier. He stood on a concrete pedestal, holding his Bell & Howell Zoomatic, and captured the only complete record of the murder.
- Frame 313: The fatal headshot. Zapruder was so traumatized he supposedly had nightmares for years where he saw his own head explode.
- The Hidden Frames: Life Magazine bought the film for $150,000. They kept the most graphic frames hidden from the public for years "out of respect."
- The Copyright: It’s a weird legal saga. The government eventually paid the Zapruder family $16 million for the physical film, but the family kept the copyright until they donated it to the Sixth Floor Museum.
It’s the most analyzed home movie in human history. Every blur, every light reflection has been treated like a holy relic.
The Polaroids You’ve Never Seen
Mary Moorman was standing on the grass, just feet away from the limo. She had a Polaroid. You know, the kind that spits out a physical photo you have to wait to develop.
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She snapped her fifth photo of the day right as the fatal shot hit.
In the background of her photo, there’s a blurry shape behind a retaining wall on the grassy knoll. Conspiracy researchers call it the "Badge Man." They claim it shows a sniper in a police uniform, muzzle flash and all.
The House Select Committee on Assassinations looked at it. They couldn't prove it was a person. Most experts today think it’s just shadows and leaves—a classic case of pareidolia, where the brain sees faces in random patterns. But if you look at the original, un-cropped Polaroid, the proximity is terrifying. She was so close she could hear Jackie Kennedy scream.
Why These Photos Still Mess With Us
We live in an age of 4K video. We expect clarity. But the photos from Kennedy assassination are frustratingly blurry.
That blur is where the mystery lives.
Take the Orville Nix film. He was filming from the opposite side of the street from Zapruder. His footage is darker because he used "Type A" indoor film outdoors without a filter. It’s murky. It’s grainy. And yet, it’s one of the most important secondary views of the "kill zone."
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The Missing Photos
Believe it or not, some photos are still missing.
There was a woman known as the "Babushka Lady" because she wore a headscarf. In several films, she is clearly seen holding a camera to her face, right at the moment of the shooting.
The FBI never found her. She never came forward. Her film—which would have been the most stable, direct view of the grassy knoll—simply doesn't exist in the public record.
How to Look at These Today
If you’re interested in diving into this, don’t just look at the famous ones. Go to the National Archives website or the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza digital collection.
Look at the bystanders.
Look at the faces of the people in the background who don’t realize what’s happening yet. It’s a gut-punch. One second they’re waving; the next, they’re hitting the dirt.
Next Steps for Research:
- Study the Altgens 6 high-res scans: Compare the "Doorway Man" to known photos of Billy Lovelady.
- Watch the stabilized Zapruder film: Modern digital stabilization removes the camera shake, making the sequence of shots much easier to follow.
- Check the Willis and Betzner photos: These were taken seconds before the Zapruder film starts and show the positioning of people on the "grassy knoll" before the chaos started.
The truth is, we have more visual documentation of this crime than almost any other in the mid-20th century. And yet, the more photos we see, the more questions we seem to have.