untitled (unpublished crucifixion scene)

Carl Fischer, artist

1924–2023

untitled (unpublished crucifixion scene), 1968

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: chromogenic color print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 31.2 x 30.9 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 31 3/16 x 30 7/8 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 36.8 x 33.8 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 14 1/2 x 13 5/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 16 in

Credit line: Gift of Esquire, Inc.

Accession number: 1980.0902

Not on display

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Politics, Race, Celebrity: Photographs from the Esquire Collection

Carl Fischer produced some of Esquire’s most iconic covers with assistance from art director George Lois. In the fall of 1968, Fischer photographed a scene of reporters at the “live” broadcast of the crucifixion of Jesus. The image accompanied an article critiquing the intrusiveness of modern journalism.
As this image was being prepared for an upcoming cover of the magazine, anti–Vietnam War protesters and police clashed on the streets of Chicago amid the tumult of the Democratic National Convention. Esquire’s editor, Harold Hayes, immediately dispatched a group of high-profile writers to Chicago, along with Fischer. Fischer tried to photograph the writers with an effigy of a brutalized protester, but this attempt was thwarted by police who jailed the group temporarily. In 2015, Fischer recalled that at that time, “the police hated the press. The press was saying they [police] were beating up protesters when they thought they were keeping the peace.” The published November 1968 cover was ultimately photographed with New York standing in for Chicago.