Photo negatives from Kennedy years lost in trade center debris
By FRANK ELTMAN
The Associated Press
12/5/01 3:56 PMNEW YORK (AP) -- Camelot, quite literally, has gone up in flames.
An estimated 40,000 images, on negatives from the late photographer Jacques Lowe's work with President John F. Kennedy and his family, are believed to have been in a destroyed bank vault beneath the World Trade Center.
Lowe, who took some of the most famous pictures of America's most famous political family, died in May at age 71.
Among his most recognizable images are one of Kennedy, who suffered from a back ailment, leaning against his White House desk in November 1961 and one of Jacqueline Kennedy, in a yellow and white checkered dress, posing on a deck chair in Hyannis Port, Mass., in the summer of 1960.
Lowe's agent, Woody Camp, said the negatives recorded "everything that related to the Kennedys. There were photographs of meetings during the Bay of Pigs. ... Historically, there's a lot that's not there any more."
Lowe's daughter, Thomasina, said her father kept his collection of negatives in a safe-deposit vault at the JP Morgan Chase bank branch at 5 World Trade Center.
In a series of letters beginning in September, Chase officials told customers they would endeavor to retrieve the safe deposit boxes once the area was deemed safe.
But in a Dec. 3 letter, the bank said an "inspection concluded that the weight of the debris as well as the extreme heat generated by the fires not only severely damaged the structure of the vault, but also either disintegrated the contents or severely damaged the boxes to the point that they are inaccessible.
"At this point, we have to consider the safe deposit boxes as unrecoverable due to this tragic disaster."
An estimated 1,000 boxes were kept in the vault.
Lowe's daughter said she is heartbroken by the loss. "I'm not being unreasonable. I know what happened on Sept. 11," she said. "I just don't understand why they can't demolish the building and then "sift through what's left ... take time to go through all that stuff."
She said the "priceless" negatives were probably worth $2 million, although they were not insured.
Charlie Maikish, executive vice president for global real estate at JP Morgan Chase, said approximately $500,000 was spent in an effort to retrieve the vault. The day before Thanksgiving, a 100-ton crane was put in place and workers entered the vault area to attempt a removal through the side of the building.
However, the workers found that the structure's walls were buckling and floor was unsound. In addition, the found "severe fire damage" inside the vault. "They checked a number of boxes and only found ashes," Maikish said. With the dangerous conditions, workers decided to abandon the retrieval effort.
He said the vault was marked as Chase property and once the building is completely demolished, workers will make another attempt at retrieval, although Maikish was not optimistic because of the fire damage.
In 1956, Lowe was assigned to photograph Robert F. Kennedy, then a young Washington lawyer. Kennedy liked Lowe's pictures and framed one to give as a present to his father, Joseph P. Kennedy. The elder Kennedy was so impressed he asked Lowe to photograph John F. Kennedy and his wife.
Lowe became the official photographer of John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1959. He was the only photographer present in the Chicago hotel room when Kennedy chose Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate.
After Kennedy was elected president, he asked Lowe to stay on as his personal photographer. His pictures of the Kennedys have appeared in 200 magazines, and he published numerous compilations of Kennedy photos, including "Portrait, The Emergence of John F. Kennedy" and "Kennedy: A Time Remembered."