Ike Altgens

Vocation

American photojournalist and field reporter for the Associated Press (AP) based in Dallas, Texas. Altgens began his career with the AP as a teenager and, following a stint with the United States Coast Guard, worked his way into a senior position with the AP Dallas bureau. While on assignment for the AP on 22 November 1963, Altgens took two historic photographs during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, including the image of Jacqueline Kennedy and Secret Service agent Clint Hill on the presidential limousine that would be reproduced on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Seconds earlier, Altgens had taken the soon-to-be controversial photograph that led people in the United States and elsewhere to question whether accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was visible in the doorway of the Texas School Book Depository as the gunshots were fired. Altgens worked briefly as a film actor and model during his 40-year career with the AP, then did advertising work until he retired altogether. Both Altgens and his wife were in their seventies when they died in 1995 (he on 12 December), at about the same time, in their Dallas home. Link to Wikipedia biography