He’s Going Out: Fred Burkhart
He’s Going Out Fred Burkhart It’s the end of summer, and we’re melancholy at the turning of the calendar page. Change. As if between the 31 st and the 1 st the world skips a beat. August to September, a demarcation, an imaginary line has been crossed. There is no going back. Fred Burkhart died August 30, 2014, nearly one year ago. And, nothing has been the same. I met Fred toward the end of his life. So much so that I agreed to be his power of attorney so that his medical choices might be carried through to the end. I wanted to make sure he went “gentle into that good night.”* Dylan Thomas. Little did I understand the man’s fighting spirit. He claimed it was his micro biotic diet, grass juicing, acupuncture, purified water, grapefruit oil, etc but I think it was his iron will. He always followed his own vision. Fred was what is called an underground photographer. Not celebrities—unless they were infamous—but the everyday, down-an...