The complete Abbey Road sessions
Less is more. We are delighted to announce a small but perfectly formed exhibition showcasing Iain MacMillan's complete session photographs, and revealing a number of unknown bystanders on the scene that day. Really fascinating stuff - but don't just take our word for it.
During his lifetime, photographer Iain MacMillan produced and signed a number of colour prints of the famous Abbey Road session photographs, made to the highest archival standards from the original transparencies. Iain passed away on 8 May 2006 and signed examples of his work are finite and very scarce. As such they are highly prized amongst Beatles collectors. Individual examples of each of the photographs come on the secondary market from time to time, and, occasionally the holy grail - a complete suite of front cover variants and the back cover photograph becomes available.
We are exhibiting a suite of Abbey Road session alternates at the gallery. This suite is extremely rare and is only being offered for sale as a complete set of six photographs. In addition, we also have a small selection of signed and numbered limited edition photographs of individual session images, and we will also be displaying the front cover image. These photographs are in extremely short supply, and are only available while stocks last. The prices of these iconic images reflect their importance in the photographic history of The Beatles.
While researching this exhibition, we have been digging deeper than anyone has gone before. Gallery owner Guy White explains:
"The opportunity to present a complete Abbey Road collection has given us the chance to put the individual images under the microscope. We’ve subjected them to some really rigorous analysis and delved into the dark spaces and shadows for the first time. This has revealed a whole cast of unknown characters (unknown for now at least) who could have found themselves in the same position as American tourist Paul Cole - appearing on the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road LP. He's the guy standing on the right pavement in the cover shot.”
“One of my favourites is a mysterious lady in a purple top who appears deep in the shadows on three of the six frames. Who was she? She probably doesn’t even know that she was there that day - but someone will know who she is. During our research, we have discovered a dozen other bystanders, just like her. In frame 3, a black delivery van pulls in behind the iconic white Beetle. The van only appears in one frame, then its gone. Look very closely and you can see the left arm of the delivery driver as he stands at the back of the van. It’s fascinating to me to think that if a different frame had been chosen as the cover, some of these other characters might have been on the album sleeve. It’s also interesting to have a set of photographs with the actual frame numbers visible, so we can establish with absolute certainty the order of the images.”
Please check out the funky online catalogue below: view it in fullscreen for maximum impact.
