Summer postcards: When John Kennedy Jr. took to the sea
This summer marks 27 years since the fatal crash that claimed his life, yet images of him sailing, barefoot and in swim trunks, continue to exert a powerful hold on the popular imagination
There was a time when summer seemed to begin the moment a Kennedy stepped aboard a boat. First it was John F. Kennedy on the 'Victura;' later, his son turned the waters between Hyannis Port and Martha’s Vineyard into the backdrop to a summer that seemed eternal. The Atlantic Ocean, a speedboat and John-John: that was the postcard image. Pictured here in 1980.Ron Galella (Getty)While other public figures retreated from view during the summer, John F. Kennedy Jr. continued to be seen as just another vacationer. At the helm, with windblown hair and sunglasses, he appeared oblivious to the creation of an icon that was taking shape before the cameras. Seen here in 1992.Brooks Kraft (Sygma via Getty Images)In the 1990s, photographs of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette helped shape an image of a couple who were as sophisticated as they were approachable. There were no carefully staged poses or grand gestures, just two people enjoying the sea as though the Kennedy name carried no weight for a few hours. Pictured here in Hyannis in 1980.Ron Galella (Getty)Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, the Kennedy family's storied summer retreat, was never merely a private residence. For decades, it served as the backdrop against which the Kennedys projected an image of a young, athletic and optimistic America. Those summers did as much to build the Kennedy legend as many of the speeches delivered in Washington.Ron Galella (Getty)Barefoot on a dock or strolling through the harbor, John F. Kennedy Jr. exuded a natural ease that was hard to manufacture. In those photographs, the lawyer, the founder of 'George' magazine and the heir to one of the world's most famous families disappeared from view. What remained was simply a man on vacation.Ron Galella (Getty)The photographs from those summers speak of a time before social media, when it was still possible to see a celebrity carrying a cooler or getting ready for a day on the water without it seeming like a carefully crafted publicity stunt.Tom Wargacki (WireImage/Getty)John F. Kennedy Jr. died on July 16, 1999, in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Twenty-seven years after the accident that also claimed the lives of his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, these images have lost none of their power to evoke nostalgia. They do not merely recall a man; they summon an entire summer.Ron Galella (Getty)His physique also became a symbol of its era. He exercised regularly, ran through Central Park and enjoyed water-skiing, yet his image was far removed from the hyper-muscular ideal that would come to dominate Hollywood just a few years later.Boston Globe/Getty ImagesHis summer uniform was as simple as it was recognizable: classic swim trunks, a pair of boat shoes, or no shoes at all, a white T-shirt when the temperature dropped, and a pair of Ray-Bans. Decades later, that aesthetic would acquire a name of its own: old money.John Roca (NY Daily News/Getty Images)What today inspires advertising campaigns and fashion editorials was, in reality, rooted in a family tradition. The Kennedys had been dressing that way in the summer for generations, long before the internet turned the look into a trend.John Tlumacki (Boston Globe/Getty Images)In a family used to creating myths, perhaps John-John's greatest achievement was seeming entirely untouched by them. That air of complete normality is probably what continues to make these photographs so compelling.Ron Galella (Getty)Images of him sailing with Carolyn capture something extraordinarily rare among 1990s celebrities: the sense that no one was performing for the camera. That spontaneity ultimately became a form of elegance.Ron Galella (Ron Galella Collection via Getty)It is hard today to separate these scenes from the ending that awaited his story just a few years later. Yet that is precisely why they retain a particular lightness: they belong to a summer that still seemed as though it would never end.Bettmann (Bettmann Archive)John-John inherited the Kennedy legend, but recast it for a new generation. In place of grand political symbolism came small, everyday scenes: steering a speedboat, walking along a pier or returning dripping wet from the sea.Brooks Kraft (Sygma via Getty Images)Perhaps that is why these photographs still work as a postcard from another era. They are not simply about a Kennedy or a tragedy, but about the last moment when fame could still seem compatible with a surprisingly ordinary life.Stephen Rose (Getty Images)
