Sunday, May 18, 2008

Beautiful Boy












As requested, here is a very large post containing all the childhood photos of John that I could find. All of these are my own scans, except for the first picture of John's birth certificate, the cute photo of him smirking (as he continued to do all his life), and the contact sheet of his Dovedale Primary pictures, age six. He was such an adorable child. I like the photo of John with his Uncle George--I believe that may be the only picture of him that I've seen. I wish there were more pictures of John with Julia, his mother.

I love reading John's musings on his childhood--how he was always different, exceptional and feeling as if no one was recognizing the special gift he had. He perceived things others could not, dreaming surrealistic dreams in vivid Technicolor, which are the tale-tell signs of a gifted child. "No one I think is in my tree/I mean, it must be high or low."

Luckily, John shared his talent and visions with the world so we could have his music, art, and poetry to enrich our lives.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

A train and a room and a car and a room...















If you are interested in more gorgeous photos of the Beatles from the set of A Hard Day's Night, in addition to other locations, pick up Yesterday: The Beatles Once Upon a Time, with photos taken by Astrid Kirchherr and Mac Scheler. The top seven pictures of John are in that book in excellent quality. The other pictures are from the Beatles Film magazine of 1964.

Two other recent photo books that are absolutely essential to Lennon fans: Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon by May Pang and John and Yoko: A New York Love Story by Allan Tannenbaum. The candid shots of John taken by May Pang are so delightful, intimate, and beautiful. The highlights for me are the pictures of John with his cats Major and Minor (as well as the photos with Julian, Ringo and Paul, needless to say).