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John & Yoko
by Andrew Maclear
About the collection:
These pictures depict four events from the extraordinary ballad of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Their first dual art exhibit was at The Robert Fraser Gallery, Mayfair, London in July 1968 at which 365 balloons were released into the evening sky. December 1969 saw a performance by The Plastic Ono Band at The Lyceum Ballroom, which featured a truly stellar group of supporting players. The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, at which both John and Yoko performed their own sets, was recorded in December 1968. And finally, to reflect the very different times between then and now, a single image of John and Yoko´s exit from a court hearing where they appeared charged with marijuana possession, London 1968.
Available Works
Andrew Maclear
Born - England. Early childhood - rural Sussex. Expressed an interest in photography when quite young. (Birds). Left school at fifteen with no qualifications. Moved to London aged sixteen - was a bicycle messenger for a film company. I still remember every alley and shortcut in the West End through which one can - or could - manoeuvre a bicycle. Soho was then an energetic, cosmopolitan village and I grifted along on my salary of four pounds ten shillings a week. I was elevated to cutting room trainee but was fired after 18 months. Aimless, my father gave me a camera and I began shooting pictures of what I saw around me, London - 1967 onwards.
I taught myself darkroom technique and adopted a simple, reportage style of shooting. I found myself photographing John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, Francoise Hardy, Jimi Hendrix, Jean-Luc Godard and in bed – literally – with Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg. It was a different world, virtually no security, everyone was friendly and compliant. I developed an interesting, eclectic portfolio of pictures – the famous and the anonymous – which evolved into a small but comprehensive view of late sixties London.
I spent a good part of the next decade in America. In my mid twenties, I started making documentaries. (Randy Newman, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, WNEW FM New York.) I produced four or five films with the BBC and Public TV in Boston. Back then, an idea, a subject and a friendly connection at a network could get you into production. With nothing to do one winter in a snowy New York City, I attempted writing a screenplay which miraculously, for a first attempt, was picked up and catapulted me into the world of screenwriting and TV drama. I lived and worked in Los Angeles for a while and wrote steadily for about fifteen years. For a while, I didn´t use the camera but came to miss it and have subsequently returned to picture taking. The results are immediate - the film world has become more and more of an endurance test.
I still have and use my 1968 Nikon F. But like most of us, I have been seduced into the digital era although I find that by using my old lenses and shooting in black and white, I can still attain the look I started out with. For me black and white enhances emotion, colours diminishes it. People and faces are my preferred subject – as they always were.
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