On the eve of a contested presidential election while the nation is embroiled in conflicts abroad, one Nashvillian offers a rare and firsthand perspective on both the presidency and the reality of combat. Joseph O’Donnell’s commentary doesn’t come in words but in pictures. An eyewitness to some of this nation’s most decisive moments, he served as an official White House photographer for two decades, capturing such famous images of cultural zeitgeist as Jacqueline Kennedy in her blood-stained pink suit aboard Air Force One and young John-John saluting President Kennedy’s casket.
But before he photographed presidents, O’Donnell served as a Marine Corps photographer in Japan, where he bore witness to the destruction of U.S. bombing during World War II. O’Donnell photographed Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other Japanese cities, but what most touched O’Donnell were human relationships. In February of 2005, Vanderbilt University Press will release Japan 1945: A U.S. Marine’s Photographs from Ground Zero. The 120-page collection of O’Donnell’s photographs illustrates the repercussions of the bombing raids, juxtaposed with images of playful children and dancing geishas, a reminder of just what is lost by the interruption of war.
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