The exhibition of David Bowie photographs by Masayoshi Sukita was one of the most popular exhibitions we have ever held at the gallery. With the V&A Museum show continuing to attract record numbers of visitors, and bringing Bowie fans from all around the globe to London until August, we have been looking for a way to prolong the Sukita-fest at the gallery. 

When it became clear that our Tour De France exhibition was only going to occupy one floor of gallery space, the solution became clear!  And so from 28 June until 27 July 2013 (inclusive), we will be showing Sukita-san's David Bowie photographs in our downstairs gallery space. The display will consist of approximately half the exhibition, rather than the complete selection we had up on the walls in March/April, but all choice cuts.

So if you didn't get to see it first time round, please come and see us, and tie it in with a visit to the V&A.
 

What a pleasure to host the inaugural showing of work from the archives of French photographer Roger Kasparian, which is now up and running at the gallery.

Roger’s story is the one you always hope for as a gallery owner: a previously undiscovered archive full of gems from arguably the most important decade in the history of contemporary pop culture.

I couldn’t put it better than the Financial Times’s esteemed art critic Jackie Wullschlager, who reviewed the show at the weekend, and called it "an irresistible evocation of time, place and the fleetingness of youth and fame.”

We have a fabulous cross section of important sixties artists on the gallery walls, including previously unreleased photographs of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Who, The Kinks, Marianne Faithfull, Serge Gainsbourg, Francoise Hardy and many more. Unpublished Beatles and Stones pieces are always special, but stand-outs for me are the fabulous shots of The Who, the beautiful Marianne Faithfull close up, and the live portrait of The Beach Boys, which has pride of place in our front window. 

You can browse the complete collection here. Edition sizes are very low, everything is handmade in the darkroom from Roger’s original negatives on heavyweight silver gelatin paper, and signed and numbered by Roger on the front under the image area. If you are quick, you might just become the proud owner of the number 1 photograph in an edition.

Roger is going to be visiting us at the gallery on the afternoon of Saturday 25 May, where he would be delighted to meet you.

The exhibition runs until 22 June 2013.

 

The cycling fans among you will remember that in July 2012, we hosted a fabulous exhibition of cycling artworks by British artist James Straffon.

This year's Tour de France is a very special one - the 100th edition of the toughest sporting event in the world.  We couldn't pass by the opportunity to celebrate this, and I am delighted to announce that James Straffon has created a new collection of work to pay tribute to the 100th edition of the tour. The exhibition, titled 100e, starts at the gallery on Friday 28 June, and runs until Saturday 27 July.

We will be releasing full details of the exhibition and the artworks next month, but for now here's one of my favourites, which features the incomparable Mr Eddy Merckx.

It is made in a limited edition in a choice of two physical sizes. Full details are here.

If you just can't wait, you will be pleased to know that this print is available to order now.

Punk+ is the beautiful new limited edition hardcover book, signed by Sheila Rock, and is available for £49 (+ postage if you can't pick it up). Get in touch if you would like one.

Sheila Rock was party to numerous intimate moments of punk. Her unique perspective comes through her portraits of influential acts including The Clash, The Jam, Generation X, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Subway Sect, The Damned and The Buzzcocks. She also documented some notorious yet till now unseen events in punk history such as The Moors Murderers rehearsals.

Punk+ chronicles both designer and street styles between 1976-9 that had such an effect on fashion, society and politics, including Vivienne Westwood’s shop SEX as well as BOY, Robot and Acme Attractions. It is a fascinating insight into one of the most influential transformations of music and celebrates the scenesters who were the punk audience, and the designers that clothed the movement. As Paul Simonon (The Clash) comments: "This book is a great photographic record of a major shift in British street fashion".

Sheila’s conversations with Chrissie Hynde, Tony James, Don Letts, Jeanette Lee, Glen Matlock, Chris Salewicz, Jon Savage, Steven Severin, Paul Simonon, Jah Wobble and more, provide an illuminating commentary on the punk phenomenon. As she observes "Punk was all about changing and surviving".

In overview: 199 photographs from Sheila Rock’s personal archive / All books signed by Sheila and numbered / 272 pages, size : 20cm x 27cm, / weight: 1,5 kg / Hardback cloth-bound embossed cover / Printed in 5 colours on 170 gm Gardamat paper in Italy / Limited to 1700 copies worldwide, £49 + shipping

   

I'm going to be very sad at 6pm on Tuesday 30 April 2013, as that marks the end of our fabulous Sukita David Bowie exhibition. I just can't believe it has flown by so quickly. It has been one of the most popular and most enjoyable exhibitions we have ever had the pleasure of hosting at the gallery. Sukita-san flew in from Japan with his team for the launch of the show, and it hasn't stopped.

During the hanging, we had a visit from Kansai Yamamoto, received bouquets of flowers for Sukita from his friends in London and Tokyo, Sukita was well and truly mobbed (in a nice way) by well-wishers on the opening weekend, we had a brilliant impromptu live acoustic performance from Paul and Rob from tribute band Pop-Up Bowie (they are definitely available for weddings and parties!), and the gallery has been buzzing for the last few weeks as Bowie fans from all round the world have been in to see us, usually in conjunction with their visits to the V&A exhibition and Heddon Street.

We have met some really great people and it has been an absolute blast. Sukita loved meeting everyone at the opening of the show, and had a smile on his face whenever he was here. But, the time has come, the end is nigh, and I have a few final announcements to make in connection with the show:

1. Extended opening next week.  Usually we are closed on Mondays, but next Monday, 29 April we will be open from 11-6pm. So if you are at the V&A that day, or just in London, come and see us. Next Tuesday we are open 11-6pm, and then the exhibition ends. 

2. Special offer 8x10 inch photographs. The three 8x10 inch photographs that Sukita selected to offer at a special price of £195 will only be able to purchase individually until close of play on 30 April 2013. At the time of writing there are still some of each left, but sales of these individual photographs will stop at 6pm on 30 April 2013, even if there are some left in the edition. The 1972 portrait has been the most popular, with 1977 and 2002 evenly matched. Act by 30 April if you want one !

3. Prices on all Sukita’s photographs frozen until 30 April 2013.  The 30 main photographs in the exhibition will continue to be available until the editions sell out, so there is no time limit on those. Although prices will increase after 30 April 2013, prices for all photographs are frozen for the duration of the exhibition. So, if you have been chewing over whether to make a purchase, please note that you have until 6pm on 30 April to lock into the entry level prices. "Heroes" has been the most popular piece in the show, and at the time of writing we have just one large Heroes left.

4. Orders in progress. Finally let me quickly update you on timings if you have purchased a photograph in the show. We will be contacting all purchasers individually, but I thought you would appreciate an overview.

4.1 Framed photographs on the gallery wall. If you have purchased one of the framed number 1s from the gallery wall, then from 6pm Tuesday the wait is over, and we will be in touch shortly to sort out the logistics with you, as your photographs are good to go once the show has ended.

4.2 Orders for unframed photographs placed by mid April: you will be pleased to know that everything has arrived from Japan and we will be shipping those to you over the next few days. We will be shipping unframed photograph orders placed in the second half of April in approximately 3 weeks time, and we will be in touch with everyone individually to co-ordinate things.

4.3 Orders for framed photographs If you placed an order by mid April for a framed piece, then please bear with us for a couple more weeks. Every order placed by mid April for a framed photograph has arrived from Japan and is now at the framers, and we will let you know as soon as your framed pieces are ready. If you placed an order for a framed photograph in the second half of April, Sukita is sending us those orders in early May and we will get those straight to the framers for you. 

As always, please do get in touch if you have any questions on any of this.

We have managed to track down a couple of copies of Speed of Life, the sold out limited edition Sukita book published by Genesis last year. 2,000 signed and numbered copies were published. 1,650 of these were designated as "Collector" versions, and 350 were designated as "Deluxe" copies. We have one of each available. They aren't cheap, but these are really beautiful books.

First come first served - get in touch if you are interested.
 

Everyone knows the classic "Heroes" cover session from 1977 - perhaps even more so now, given that the "Heroes" artwork forms the backdrop to the new album, The Next Day.

Back in 1977, David Bowie was on a promotional tour in Japan with Iggy Pop for Iggy's album The Idiot when Sukita grabbed him for a one hour session. The photos were meant to have a ‘punk’ feel, and David had asked Yacco to get as many leather jackets as possible. The black and white "Heroes" photograph is so familiar that seeing an image from that session in colour is a revelation - many people don't realise that Sukita also had colour film in his camera that day.

Sukita is releasing this colour session photograph, which he has titled "V2 Schneider" for the very first time, and it is available to order as a signed limited edition in a choice of two paper sizes, 16 x 20 inch paper in an edition of 30, and 30x40 inch paper in an edition of 10.

In the exhibition we will be displaying this in the smaller size on the gallery wall, but both sizes are available to order.

Incredible to think that this key 1973 live performance photograph is being offered onto the collectors market for the very first time in this exhibition, and that someone now has the opportunity to own the number 1 photograph in the edition.  We will be displaying this key piece in the large 30 x 40 inch version at the gallery during the show, and it looks magnificent in that large size. 

This photograph, which Sukita has titled 'Gimmie Your Hands' was taken in April 1973 at Shibuya Kokaido in Tokyo, on David Bowie's first tour of Japan. It is always nice to hear from people who were at the concert, and we had an email yesterday from Ichiro Shimizu was was there in the audience.  He sends a nice message to Sukita and we wanted to share that as it sums up how many people feel about Sukita's photographs.

Ichiro writes: "Sukita-san, i was totally knocked out by your Bowie shot which was blown out be a 4-story high building displayed on Seibu department store wall in Shibuya, just before his Ziggy concert. I was very surprised when I saw another Ziggy shot you took from the side of the stage at Shibuya Koukaido including me as an audience member. I love your pictures - all those glam rock period ones. They take me back to those days with wonderful memories. Thank you."

Gimmie Your Hands is available to order now in a choice of two sizes - on 16 x 20 inch paper in an edition of 30 examples, and on 30x  40 inch paper in an edition of just 10 worldwide. You can order one right now - go go go !

We know how exciting this is. I’m excited just typing out this sentence. We are conscious that many people want to see something before the start of the show, and so we are revealing details of the first exhibition photograph, available now to order online.

Sukita has selected an important photograph from his very first studio session in 1972 with David Bowie to include in the exhibition, and this is the photograph that we are making available to collectors to pre-order now. Sukita-san has titled this photograph Our True Story Began at The Rainbow Theatre. It is reproduced alongside.

The photograph has special significance for Sukita because it was chosen by David Bowie to blow up to a very large size and display in the foyer of the Rainbow Theatre for his concerts there on 19 and 20 August 1972. As Sukita explains: “I was very pleased about it. It proved that David-san really did like my work, and that was very important to me.”

If you were at The Rainbow Theatre concerts, maybe you remember the foyer? Scroll down and you will see a previously unreleased image from Sukita's archives, showing the image blown up large.

Our True Story Began at The Rainbow Theatre is offered as a limited edition in two size options:

On 16 x 20 inch paper, an edition of 30 examples in this size.

On 30 x 40 inch paper, an edition of 10 examples in this size.

Each archival Lambda photograph is signed and numbered on the front under the image area by Masayoshi Sukita.

You can find full details of prices and sizes for Our True Story Began at The Rainbow Theatre here. You can order online, or if you prefer, you can get in touch with us at the gallery to place an order.

Steady there tiger - all in good time.

What we can tell you at this point is that if you visit us at the gallery you will find things at a range of price points, starting from completely and utterly free, and rising up to a few thousand pounds for an ultra-large-format signed Masayoshi Sukita limited edition photograph.

While stocks last, we will be giving out some nice free gifts to gallery visitors - a badge, a bookmark, and maybe some other items. In the £25-35 range we will have some books, and a selection of beautiful tote bags and T-shirts designed by Machiko Jinto. See the picture alongside - I'm having a red one.

The main event, Masaoyoshi Sukita's signed and numbered limited edition photographs, will of course be available to purchase.
 

We have been running a general gallery Twitter page (@snapgalleries) for a while, where we fire out random bits and pieces.

For our David Bowie Sukita exhibition, we have set up a specific Twitter page where we will be regularly sharing info on the exhibition.

Our Facebook page is now active - something we have been neglecting. Naughty.

Follow @bowiesukita and 'like' our facebook page for all the latest news on the show as soon as it is released.

In the run up to the launch of the exhibition on 22 March 2013, we will be releasing details of two other favourite photographs, and each one will be available to order online immediately on release of the information. Here’s how we will do it.

On Sunday 17 March at midday, we will release details of a limited edition photograph from a live Tokyo performance in 1973. It's a killer. So that date, 17 March, will be the first opportunity to purchase this particular photograph online.

Then on Tuesday 19 March at midday, we will release details of a beautiful portrait from Sukita’s 1977 “Heroes” sessions, which will then be available to order.

Online orders - everything else available to order from midday on 22 March 2013.

We will then be releasing full details of all the remaining photographs in the exhibition at midday on Friday 22 March 2013, the same day/time that the gallery doors open for the exhibition. That will be the first opportunity to place an online order for the majority of the photographs in the exhibition.

What else is in the show?  Well, that’s when you’ll see!
 

We thought it would be helpful to show you how Sukita prepares his limited edition photographs.

The photographs are always made with a white border around the image area. The overall paper sizes are always the same (either 16 x 20 inches, or 30 x 40 inches) and the exact image sizes vary from photograph to photograph. As a rule of thumb, taking the 16 x 20 inch paper size as an example, you can expect to see a 1 inch border to the left, top and right of the image, with slightly more border below, to allow room for the signature and number.

Each limited edition photograph in the exhibition is then signed and numbered on the front by Masayoshi Sukita in order to authenticate it. Sukita's signature (in Japanese, and also in English) appears in the white border underneath the image (over towards the left hand side). You can see an example of his signature in the photograph alongside.  The edition number also appears on the front, under the image, but over on the right hand side. In this example, the photograph in question is number 1 in the edition of 30, on 16 x 20 inch paper.

Simples!

Our Sukita exhibition now starts at midday on 22 March 2013

We had originally set the start date as 11.00am on Saturday 23 March 2013.

Many people then contacted us to say that they are going to be in London on Friday 22 March for the V&A Museum’s members preview day. As a result we are now going to be open a day earlier than planned, and we will be open from midday until 6pm on Friday 22 March.

Extended opening - 24 and 25 March 2013.

Usually, we are open five days a week, Tuesday to Saturday. You can see our opening hours, and location details here.

For the opening weekend of the exhibition, we will also be open on Sunday 24 March and Monday 25 March, from 11am to 6pm.

Easter

We will be open Good Friday and the next day, Saturday 30th, from 11-5. Please note that we will be closed on Easter Sunday, and also closed on Monday 1st April.

No charge, no booking, no nothing.

We have received many emails and phone calls asking about whether you need to book to come and see the show, and whether there are admission charges. No, and no. It’s all really straightforward. Think of us just like any regular shop. Everything is for sale, and as a result there is no admission charge, and no need to book. You just need to come and visit us on a day when we are open.

Please do get in touch if you have any questions about anything.

Thank you for your interest in the photo exhibition DAVID BOWIE by MASAYOSHI SUKITA at SNAP. As you all aware, just two years ago, Japanese people suffered a great disaster in Japan's eastern region on 11th March, 2011. Since then, I have held a number of charity photo exhibitions with many other photographers who all share their feeling for those affected. It must be noted that Mr. Bowie himself has been very kind and supported these exhibitions throughout.

Also, I will donate part of the profits from this exhibition to the Japanese earthquake relief fund. It must be noted again that Mr. Bowie is kindly co-operating with me for this exhibition and charity. I am very grateful for our long-time friendship.

Please come and enjoy this exhibition.

Masayoshi Sukita, March 2013

Note: Masayoshi Sukita will be at the gallery on Saturday 23 March 2013 from 1pm and would be delighted to meet you.

it may surprise you to learn that this is actually the very first time that the overwhelming majority of these photographs have ever been offered for sale to collectors. In fact, only one photograph in the entire exhibition has ever been available to purchase before. There are 33 different limited edition photographs in the exhibition. All vinyl aficionados love that number, because a vinyl LP rotates at 33 1/3 rpm. With David Bowie's new album, The Next Day, just out, an exhibition off 33 photographs seems pretty apt - and completely unintentional of course. 

The photographs are being sold in number order, starting with the number 1 in each edition. With a couple of exceptions, each photograph is available in a choice of two size options, 16 x 20 inch paper and 30 x 40 inch paper. So the first person out of the blocks on the 16 x 20 inch paper size gets to take home number 1/30, while the first purchaser of the larger 30 x 40 inch paper size gets number 1/10.

Everyone likes the idea of having a number 1, but please don’t get too hung up on numbers. If you do want to acquire something, then with Sukita setting edition sizes so low, the important thing is going to be to actually secure one in the first place.

We have the advantage over you in that we have seen all the prints in the flesh. Sukita is a perfectionist, and the quality of the printing is absolutely spectacular. If you can make it to the gallery, you will see examples of both sizes framed on the walls - although of course for each of the pieces in the exhibition, we are showing just one size - either the regular 16 x 20 or the large 30 x 40 version.

If you have the budget and the wallspace to stretch to the larger 30x40 inch paper size, I can promise you that it will blow your mind. The impact of the increase in scale over the 16 x 20 is dramatic and significant.

It's been a pleasure putting this exhibition together - we hope you enjoy it.

First up, David Bowie's new album The Next Day, is released in the UK on Monday 11 March.

A couple of weeks later, on 23 March London’s Victoria and Albert Museum launch a huge show featuring more than 300 objects from David Bowie’s personal archives, include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, music videos, set designs and Bowie's own instruments.

Is that all?  Well, no.....as I am delighted to be adding a third major Bowie event to the calendar.

From 22 March to 30 April 2013 we will be hosting a wonderful David Bowie retrospective of work by Japanese master photographer Masayoshi Sukita. This is one of the most exciting exhibitions we have put on at the gallery, and we have been working very hard behind the scenes with Sukita-san to put this together in a relatively short time-frame. The exhibition features images from Sukita-san’s 40+ years of collaboration with David Bowie, and combines previously unseen images alongside familiar classics, in a range of physical sizes, including some dramatic large format pieces.

Sukita-san’s archive is truly outstanding - one of the most important David Bowie archives, if not the most, anywhere in the world. Perhaps best know for his “Heroes” cover photograph (which, coincidentally features on the cover on the new album, The Next Day) Sukita-san’s relationship with Bowie started in 1972, and the exhibition will cover work from 1972 to 2002.

We will be releasing details of images, prices and sizes a short time in advance of the launch. All I can tell you at this stage is that edition sizes are very low, prices are very keen, and the selection is all killer, no filler. Start saving your pennies, as we expect sell-outs.

The exhibition starts on the same day as the V&A museum show preview, Friday 22 March, so if you are in London between 22 March and 30 April please come along and see it.

If you want to be among the first to hear about the juicy bits, just sign up to our newsletter

A previously unpublished photograph of The Beatles (reproduced at the bottom of this news item) has been doing the rounds online for the last few weeks. The word is that this is the original image used on the cover of Rubber Soul, where, in it’s cropped, rotated and distorted form, it is one of the all time classic 1960s LP cover photographs. That's the actual cover to the right of course.

When I first saw the newly discovered image, it struck me that it looked so unlike the final cover artwork that I found myself questioning whether it was actually the correct source image. So are they the same?  Well, to try and put some science behind it, we have carried out an exercise in photoshop to see if we could get from one to the other. We’ve put this together as a step by step guide, which is here if you are interested. As you’ll see, as a result of this, we feel pretty sure that the two are the same.

Now here’s the thing that I find really interesting. Take a look again at the original full frame image down below. It isn’t actually a particularly inspiring photograph as it stands, is it? For me, it isn’t LP cover material. But the distorted, rotated and cropped image, as it appears on the cover, takes it to new heights. It came about because a piece of card slipped during the presentation when the photographer, Robert Freeman, was showing the images to the Beatles for selection purposes. That slippage caused the image to distort during the presentation. The Beatles wanted that effect - and so the cover as we know it came into being. It makes you pause to think how things could have been completely different if that hadn’t happened, and the card hadn't slipped during the meeting. They may well have skipped past this image, shouting "next!", and Rubber Soul wouldn’t be as we know it. How crazy is that?

Rubber Soul features in our exhibition Robert Freeman: Beatles For Sale which runs until 16 March 2013. Come check it out. Amongst other things, we are delighted to be showing an ultra large format sepia toned version of the classic cover image, measuring 37 x 39 inches when framed, and one of only two examples ever made by Robert Freeman in that size.

Finally, if you are interested in reading more on the Rubber Soul back-story, check out this fascinating and meticulous blog post we stumbled across.

Gered Mankowitz:  Hendrix and Stones

We have recently teamed up with one of London’s best known restaurants, Quaglinos, who are on Bury Street, just around the corner from the gallery. You might not know this, but Quaglinos are big photography fans and run a series of exhibitions in their bar and restaurant. Our first collaboration is with work from the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix archives of Gered Mankowitz. A selection of Gered’s work is on show there until 26 March 2013, and Quaglinos are giving all our customers a 20% discount off their a la carte menu prices if you visit during the show, and quote “Snap Galleries” when booking. They have also created some special rock n roll cocktails while the exhibit is up on the walls.

A special event on Saturday 23 February 2013

As part of the exhibition, Quaglinos are hosting an intimate talk with Gered Mankowitz at 13:00 - 2.30 pm on Saturday 23 February 2013. Tickets cost £30 per person and include tea/coffee or a Rock ‘n’ Roll cocktail of your choice. If you want to eat before or after then you also get a 20% discount in the restaurant for lunch when dining from their a la carte menu. Gered Mankowitz will be discussing his current exhibition at Quaglino’s, and attendees will meet Gered and learn more about his approach to photography and the stories behind the images.

To book a place, or for more information, all you need to do is get in touch with Quaglinos marketing manager, Georgia Ayres, who is running the event.

Georgia is on: georgiaa@danddlondon.com or 020 7484 2005.

Quaglinos is at 16 Bury Street, London SW1Y 6AJ


quaglinos@danddlondon.com
 

New York born, London-based photographer Donald Silverstein was commissioned to photograph Jimi Hendrix in 1968. The resulting image featured on a hugely popular poster, originally included as a pull-out with Electric Ladyland, and remains one of the most famous and recognizable images of Hendrix.

This is, quite simply, one of the absolute all time classic photographs of the incendiary guitarist. "Iconic" is a very overused term these days, but in this instance it really is justified. It seems incredible given the importance of this image that it has never been available to purchase as a limited edition photograph before now, but that is the case.

Donald Silverstein died in 1975, and now, for the very first time, his estate are offering collectors the chance to own this image as a limited edition. If you remember the original 1960s poster, you will know that the contrast was cranked up to 10 - and it was difficult to pick out detail. Deliberately, the limited edition photograph has been left just as Donald Silverstein would have seen it originally, and I have to say that the fine detail is just exquisite. You can get a sense of that from the image alongside. 

This is such a key piece. If you are an established collector, you really need this! If you are thinking about taking the plunge on something special in 2013, then what a great place to start. There are four different size choices, from 16x20 inch (40x50cm) paper right up to a monster 6 ft (1.8m) high version. If you are going to purchase one, my advice is definitely "Go Big" - as big as you can fit on your wall. The 30x40 inch paper size would look incredible, and the big six foot high version would dominate a room (in a good way). I know, I know, its just after Christmas and there are all kinds of reasons why you don't want to buy something now, but think about it for a second...

...No space?  Lose a mirror. Seriously - isn't it better to look at this?

...No money after Christmas?  We can help. If you want to pay by installments we can work something out with you.

...Too much to eat over the holiday period? What better way to shed a few pounds than to take inspiration from Mr Hendrix's incredible abs ?  Buy the limited edition photograph, frame it and hang it on your wall; put some Jimi on very loud, put your exercise mat on the floor under the photograph and crank out the sit-ups until you look like this.

Hope we can tempt you - I know you won't regret it.

You will find full details of prices and sizes here.

De La Heaven....

I loved Three Feet High and Rising when it first came out in 1989, and now we get the chance to revisit the daisy age all over again, with the release of this beautiful limited edition screenprint of the album cover artwork, designed by British artist Toby Mott.

To mark the official launch of this print in January, we are giving the ground floor of the gallery the 'De La' treatment.

The limited edition print is a joy - the image size is a generous 20 x 20 inches, and with an edition of just 60 worldwide, it isn't going to last forever.

If you would like to place an order, here's the link

Iain MacMillan: John Lennon and Yoko Ono - the dissolving heads series

While Iain MacMillan is undoubtedly best known for his Abbey Road sessions with the Beatles, he also created a series of five photographs of John and Yoko, which he called the 'dissolving heads' series, where, as the viewer moves from left to right through the sequence of five photographs, John morphs into Yoko.

History and usage

Iain MacMillan’s close up portraits of John and Yoko that formed the basis for the dissolving heads series were first used on the back cover of the catalogue for Yoko Ono’s exhibition ‘This Is Not Here’ at New York’s Everson Art Museum in October 1971.

They were also used by John & Yoko on their 1971 US single ‘Happy Christmas (War is Over), where the five images appeared in sequence on the the record label. It featured again on their single ‘Woman is the Nigger of the World’ released in 1972. The album ‘Some Time in New York City’, which was also released in 1972, also featured the sequence. This was the last release to feature the dissolving heads.

A set of dissolving heads portraits was recently exhibited in Dundee’s Discovery Point Gallery in Scotland from February 2010 to June 2010, in a retrospective exhibition of Iain MacMillan’s photographs titled “From Dundee to Abbey Road”. Dundee was Iain’s hometown, and the exhibition celebrated his work. This was a public gallery space and nothing was available for sale to the public.

After the exhibition, Yoko Ono negotiated the purchase of all Iain’s photographs featuring her and John, including the set that were included in the Dundee exhibition, so we know that Yoko herself owns a set.  We are offering this set on behalf of a private collector who acquired them directly from Iain MacMillan in the 1980s. Do other sets exist? Quite possibly, but unfortunately we have no way of knowing how many with any certainty. What we can say is that this is the first time we have ever offered a set for sale, and we have not seen them offered on the market before, so it is a real treat to be able to offer them for sale now.

Technical background and specifications

These five silver gelatin photographs were made in the mid 1980s by photographer Iain Macmillan in the darkroom from the original 1971 negatives. They have an image size measuring 18 x 18 cm / 7 x 7 inches on  20 x 25 cm / 8 x 10 inch paper.

Iain created the set from two negatives, one negative of the portrait of John (the first photograph in the sequence), and one of the portrait Yoko (the fifth in the sequence). The three other images in the sequence of the result of some technically challenging darkroom work by Iain with both negatives, making double exposures with varying exposure times to give the morphing effect. The resulting photographic image shows the one image superimposed over the other. One image is emphasized over the other by being exposed for longer. When producing dissolving heads, Iain would have carefully times the exposure of each frame to create the ‘merging’ effect. The complex nature of the process means that no two complete sets of dissolving heads portraits will ever be exactly the same.

May Pang, who was the Lennons’ PA in New York in the early 1970s is quoted watching Iain develop the dissolving heads photographs: “Well, remember that there was no Photoshop or computers back then, and that is a key point. It is amazing that he was able to accomplish this. Iain had to do all of that by hand. Imagine that! I remember him working on those photos, painstakingly, and how he’d come back from the dark room with some outtakes that were really funny. You know, he’d come out with the eyes or mouth not lined up right, (laughs) and he’d show me and we’d laugh ourselves sick. They were so funny.”

Each photograph has been individually mounted on card, and Iain has titled the mount underneath the first photograph of John Lennon (with no morphing): “New York. 1971. Dissolving Heads”. The wording under the final photograph of Yoko Ono consists of a dedication by Iain to the original owner, and bears Iain's signature.

They were acquired by the current owner directly from Iain Macmillan in the mid 1980s and have been in storage since then.

Price on request

It is with great sadness that I pass on news that New York photographer and good friend of the gallery Ken Regan has passed away.

Our relationship with Ken goes right back to the inception of the gallery in 2004, when we hosted our very first exhibition - of Ken's photographs of Bob Dylan from the Rolling Thunder Revue. In those days we were based in a barn in the middle of Northamptonshire and the hardy souls who made the trip to find us were rewarded with a great selection of Ken's 1975 photographs, and a nice cup of tea for their troubles.

Ken was a very early supporter of the gallery and I had the pleasure of meeting him a number of times on visits to New York. He shot musicians for five decades, and his archive is simply immense.

Last year Ken put out a brilliant retrospective book, called All Access, which you should definitely purchase on Amazon if you don't have it.  I'm looking at my copy now. Ken was very close with the Rolling Stones, photographing them first in 1969 at Hyde Park, and then through the decades that followed. His bond with them leaps out of the book - Keith wrote the preface and Mick the Introduction.

He will be greatly missed. His legacy lives on through his extraordinary photographs - like his portrait of Keith at the fireside, shown here.

This new exhibition presents a collection of signed original Jim Marshall photographs alongside estate authorised limited editions.

Signed examples of Jim's work held by his estate are getting very very scarce. So scarce that we have just two signed examples from Jim's Stones archives available. They happen to be Jim's two most important Stones images. First up, Mick and Keith recording Exile on Main St in Sunset Sound studios in LA in early 1972. This is made on 11 x 14 inch paper, and it looks exquisite in this small size. Second, a solo shot of Keith from the same session, with trademark cigarette, on 16 x 20 inch paper. This photograph is such an icon that it has featured in all four of Jim Marshall's published books. We have included both images alongside.

The estate authorised limited editions, which occupy the downstairs space at the gallery, come in just one size option (16x20 or 20x24 inch paper, and this varies depending on the image). The nice thing for collectors is that there is no crossover - in other words, the signed pieces are not offered as limited edition estate authorised prints, and the estate prints are all images that were never released as signed pieces during Jim's lifetime. For example, the great shot of Mick in his Palace Laundry t-shirt shown below is one of my favourites and is available as an estate authorised limited edition of 25 on 16 x20 inch paper, supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

You can view the range here and there are some gallery interior shots too

Stocking filler books by Jim Marshall

The exhibition coincides with the publication of The Rolling Stones 1972 a new book of (you guessed it, the clue is in the title...) Jim's Rolling Stones 1972 tour photographs, with a foreword by Keith Richards, and an introduction by music critic Joel Selvin. The Sunset Sound shot of Mick and Keith features on the front cover. it's a real nugget of a book, and measures 8.5 x 7.5 inches approx. Copies of the new hardcover book are available to purchase at the gallery now for £15.  We also have a supply of Jim's larger coffee table book Trust, which features a wider range of subjects but does include further Stones photographs not featured in Stones 72. Trust is £25.

Here’s a treat for Christmas. The gods of timing are on our side, as visitors to the gallery will be able to see two key pieces from Iain Macmillan’s 1969 Abbey Road sessions. All of a sudden the rock ‘n’ roll walking tours of London have put us on their routes because of these two pieces - and twice a week, a bunch of Beatles fans press their noses against the window. If you are interested in the Abbey Road sessions generally, please do check out the research we carried out in 2011, which we turned into a nice online publication. This has been read by over 10,000 people the last time we looked.

So what are the two pieces on the wall ?  On the left, an ultra-large size version ( framed dimensions 38 x 39 inches) of frame 2 in the sequence of 6 photographs taken that day. Frame 2 has always been my favourite piece from the session, because the Beatles are going the ‘wrong’ way, right to left (rather than left to right as on the actual cover), and Paul is in sandals, rather than barefoot on the cover. Paul wore sandals for the first two frames in the sequence. 

Iain made just one or two examples of his session photographs in this ultra-large size, so these big boys almost never come on the market.

Alongside is another ultra rare piece, the actual cover photograph, which again sold out very quickly when first offered in an edition of 25+APs and rarely comes on the market.

Both are signed by Iain MacMillan.

Stuck for a Christmas present ?  If your budget goes to £395, do consider either of the two limited edition books we have released under our new publishing arm, Ormond Yard Press.

Born To Run Revisited, with photographs by Eric Meola picks out the very best of Eric's 1975 session with Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons, and presents images across double page spreads measuring 24 x 36 inches.

I Saw Nick Drake: photographs by Keith Morris is a major new book, the first ever photographic study of acclaimed British singer songwriter Nick Drake, anf features 200 of Keith Morris's photographs from all three of his album cover sessions. 

We have just received fresh deliveries from the binders in time for Xmas so they are both in stock and ready to ship.

We also have a special storage solution - a transparent slide in/ slide out frame that hangs on your wall and enables you to display your book on the wall like a piece of art - which is what it is.

We are ramping up the publishing side of the business next year as we have been so delighted with the feedback on our first two books. We have some spectacular books in the pipeline, featuring all the big beasts, including The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Hendrix, Dylan and The Who, to name a few. More details will follow in the new year.

It's always nice when you discover a long lost friend. British photographer Martyn Goddard recently discovered this photograph in his archives, and is now able to offer it is a limited edition for the first time. It was taken at the Record Plant, in NYC in 1978, during the recording sessions for Parallel Lines.

It is available in a range of sizes

March 2013 sees the release of a new album of previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix recordings, titled People, Hell and Angels.

The cover artwork has been officially released on the Jimi Hendrix official site, and features a studio portrait by good friend of the gallery Gered Mankowitz.

It is available in a choice of paper sizes, and the traditional size offerings are here

In addition, it also comes in an exquisite small size, and featured in the career retrospective exhibition we hosted at the gallery in 2011, which consisted of exquisite 8 x 10 inch silver gelatin prints in small editions.

Framed dimensions for each 8 x 10 photograph are approximately 13 x 13 inches. The really useful thing about these is that they can be hung individually in small spaces, or alternatively combined in clusters of four, six, nine etc to fill larger wall spaces. The small size is exquisite and really sucks you in, encouraging you to get up close. The photograph below shows a group of 24 on the gallery wall right now.

You can view the full retrospective collection here

Here's a shot of Morgan Howell's latest limited edition three dimensional super-size single, a recreation of the Stones' Classic 1971 Brown Sugar 45 in his trademark super-size format, measuring 32 x 32 inches framed. There are nine in the edition, each one signed and numbered by Morgan on the front.

To put the size into some kind of perspective, you can see the original seven inch single, the basis for Morgan's super-size version, leaning against the front of the frame. We will be displaying this in the gallery up until Xmas if you want to see an example of Morgan's work up close. They really are like nothing you will have seen before.

Brown Sugar is the third in a series of super-size versions of classic Stones singles, following up on Morgan's previous pieces, It's All Over Now and Satisfaction. Full price and size info for the Brown Sugar limited edition is here.

If you have seen the footage of Jo Wiley and Huey Morgan interviewing Mick, Keith and Ronnie for the BBC, you can’t have failed to see the huge singles that formed the backdrop to the interview. Well, those are Morgan’s It's All Over Now and Satisfaction artworks. There’s a photograph below.

Want something bespoke? Morgan will also produce an original commission for our clients based on any cherished 45 in your collections. Get in touch if you would like further information on a commission.

More general background about Morgan is right here

I saw Radiohead live for the first time last week and they well and truly blew me away. It got me thinking about this beautiful Radiohead portrait by Kevin Westenberg. Kevin is an uber-talented photographer, and his work has just been the subject of a hugely successful major museum exhibition in Japan.  To my eyes, it is the most important, quintessential Radiohead photograph out there. It comes in a range of sizes, all here

If you want to see more of Kevin's work generally, please do check out his section of the gallery website here