previously unpublished photograph taken month before John Lennon killed

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/opinion/08mitchell.html?th&emc=th

A Final Record

By JACK MITCHELL
Published: December 8, 2005

TWENTY-FIVE years ago today, John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This previously unpublished photograph was taken a little more than a month before his death.

Back in the 70's and 80's, I took many pictures of people in the arts, and I had been asked by The Times to photograph Lennon and Yoko Ono for a story about their new album, "Double Fantasy."

The session was to take place in my studio on East 74th Street on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 8 p.m. The couple, who had not been in a photography studio for five years, had insisted that I be alone - with no assistant, or anyone else, in my studio during the session. I put up a gray seamless backdrop because I had no idea what they would be wearing.

The two arrived about 15 minutes late, rang my buzzer and walked up to my second-floor studio. They were wearing sweaters, and they were by themselves.

In an effort to gauge how much time I was going to have, I asked John if this was a stop en route to dinner. He replied, laughing: "Dinner? I've not had breakfast yet!"