Allan Tannenbaum

bed-laughing© Allan Tannenbaum

Allan Tannenbaum’s photographs give an intimate look into the final weeks of music artist, John Lennon. They document John Lennon’s time in New York City with his muse and wife, artist Yoko Ono. The photographs include candid moments of an optimistic Lennon shortly before the release of Double Fantasy, unaware that it would be his final album.

Photographer Allan Tannenbaum, an artist and musician himself, had long loved rock and roll and the vibrant creative life of downtown New York. By the time he entered John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s milieu, they had been living in New York City for several years. The couple were at a great point in their lives together, having settled into their home at the Dakota and having celebrated the birth of their son Sean. From Ono’s first visit to Tannenbaum’s studio in Tribeca to the walks in Central Park, his photographs are a rare document of that magical time in a special place. His skill and sensitivity as a photographer and the warm relationship he established with his subjects are apparent in his images.

Tannenbaums photographs allow us to see into some of John and Yoko’s tender and private moments and demonstrating their love for each other. Three weeks after the release of Double Fantasy in 1980, John Lennon passed away. The album went on to win Album of the Year at the 1981 Grammy Awards
Tannenbaum continued to photograph Yoko as well as the vigils and memorials that immediately sprung up throughout New York City after Lennon’s untimely passing. It is both a celebration of and a tribute to one of our greatest artists and an everlasting love affair.

“Thank you, Allan, for being there at the last chapter of our life together, and catching the way we were. You made John a very happy man.”

– From Yoko Ono’s preface to the book John & Yoko: A New York Love Story

“These are the most beautiful and sensitive photographs of John and Yoko that I have ever seen”

– Donovan from Allan Tannenbaum’s book John & Yoko: A New York Love Story (Insight Editions).

Allan Tannenbaum’s photographs are available through Govinda Gallery

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