On Thursday, the Morrison Hotel
Gallery on Prince Street in SoHo will open a photography show
celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles coming to the U.S.
What
separates this exhibit from other events of its ilk? It was curated by
Julian Lennon, a
photographer in his own right. (He is also represented by the Morrison
Hotel Gallery, who put on his first exhibition in New York.)
The
50th anniversary had come up several times with Julian but "it was
all seeming too much of a muchness, you know?" he said the other day in a
phone conversation from Europe before a several-day trip to Kenya and
Ethiopia as part of his White Feather Foundation. "It was not only
impossible to figure out who was doing this, that and the other, but I
just decided to take a backseat and send my best wishes and love that
way."
Then Timothy White, a photographer
and a partner at the Morrison Hotel Gallery, came to Julian with an
idea to peruse a few hundred photos of his dad with the Beatles, pick
out 25 or maybe 50, because it was the 50th anniversary. Julian
thought that was a good idea. (Twenty-five shots will be exhibited at
the New York space and another 25 at a gallery in Los Angeles, at which
Timothy White is a partner.)
"For me,
this was a much more personal, emotional and respectful way of being
involved, especially with photography as my number one passion these
days," said Julian. He attempted to find photographs that in
particular "gave me an emotion and told me a bit more of the inside
story and what these boys were feeling when they were going through what
they were going through."
Julian said he saw in some of the images "the look of anxiety or fear"; "a
certain element of numbness"; and "the reality of the situation," i.e.
popularity of the Beatles really "hitting them."
"What an incredible experience they had," said Julian.
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