These photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono were taken at Tittenhurst Park in Ascot, Berkshire by Richard DiLello on January 31, 1970. John and Yoko had recently returned from a trip to Sweden where they had cut off their hair as a symbolic gesture of a new phase in their lives. And collectively they had a lot of hair. There was an immediate request from the media to get pictures of the Lennons sporting their new art school, boho look.
(Photos by © Richard DiLello, via johnlennon.com)
DiLello was working in the Apple Press Office with Derek Taylor. Sometime in 1968 traded a Vox amplifier for a friend’s Nikon F with a 50 millimeter lens and taught himself how to use it, after a fashion.
“I had a natural eye but I didn’t have a great deal of technical knowledge under my belt. Nonetheless, as the requests for a photo session with the Lennons continued to come in, I asked Derek Taylor, “Do you think John & Yoko would let me photograph them?”
“He thought about it for two seconds. Then he rummaged around on his desk, held up a press clipping and said, “Go downstairs and give them (John & Yoko) this. As you’re on the way out, with your hand on the doorknob, turn around and ask them ‘Can I photograph you?’”
He followed the script. And they said, “Yes.”
A few days later one of the Apple chauffeurs drove Richard DiLello down to Tittenhurst Park on a frigid, grey day and he started snapping away.
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