"One day, I heard this little yelp," Eppridge recalled. His wife was cleaning out his unorganized archive, full of the cardboard boxes that Eppridge says all photographers use for storage. "She called to me and said. 'You might want to see this.'"
She had uncovered more than 2,000 photographs - in unopened boxes - that were sent to him when Life magazine folded in 1972.
"You'd be off on the next assignment, and you just didn't have time to look at what it was you did," he said. "You'd always be looking to the future."
Among the photos were 500 from his Kennedy assignment, including some that would become logical closers for his latest book, such as a motion-blurred, watery view from the photographers' bus of the funeral procession as it approached Arlington National Cemetery.
Much of 2008 reminds Eppridge of the tumultuous '60s: an unending war, an embattled White House. And then there is Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whose style has been compared to Kennedy's.
Eppridge and his wife traveled to an April rally in Philadelphia to hear Obama speak. It was the first time Eppridge had ventured near politics of any sort in almost 40 years.
There were more than 20,000 people there and, unlike in 1968, enormous security. All serious candidates for the presidency, not just the party nominees, get Secret Service protection now. Kennedy did not even have police protection in Los Angeles.
"Security is incredible with this guy," Eppridge said of Obama. "And I was glad to see it."
When not watching the security at work, he studied Obama and the crowds.
"It's fascinating to watch him work the crowds, and the crowds look the same," he said. "And they look at him like God. And Bobby's people did the same."
Returning to Missouri to teach a workshop in the early 1970s, Eppridge went to his former mentor Neihardt, who asked to see the Kennedy photographs. He sat silently while going through the images, Eppridge recalled. When he finished, a half-minute passed before the poet looked up.
"You did it," he told his former student. "That is an epic poem."
christopher.assaf@baltsun.com
Bill Eppridge
Age: 70
Education: Bachelor's degree in photojournalism
Career: Photographer for Life magazine where he covered Barbra Streisand in Paris, the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Revolution, the Beatles' first visit to the U.S., civil unrest in Mississippi and the war in Vietnam; staff photographer for Sports Illustrated; has covered such things as the Olympics and the America's Cup, the Mount St. Helens eruption and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
Awards: Twice named Photographer of the Year by the National Press Association while in college.
Books: A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties; Robert Kennedy: The Last Campaign; provided photographs for Upland Passage: A Field Dog's Education and Jake: A Labrador Puppy at Work and Play.
Personal: Lives in New Milford, Conn., with his wife, Adrienne Aurichio. She is also his editor.
Online
See a multimedia presentation on Bill Eppridge at baltimoresun.com/eppridge
