Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan (Outtakes)

by Del Quentin Wilber / Picador

A minute-by-minute account of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan

I worked with Ron Edmonds's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of President Ronald Reagan at the moment of the shooting. I thought that the image was recognizable enough for me to abstract. To suggest the book’s close-up, in-depth exploration on this event, I cropped tightly into the expression on his face. I wanted the immediacy of a news event unfolding, so I converted the image into newspaper printing, halftone-dots. I chose a large dot pattern to further abstract the image and get you even closer. All of the type elements were placed in the repeated dot shapes that suggested gunshots. In the end, this was probably too sensational of an approach for this book.

KILLED COMPS:





Read photographer Ron Edmonds/AP Behind-the-Photo account of his Pulitzer Prize-Winning photograph.