Julian Lennon pays tribute to his father through pictures

Julian Lennon has had quite a name to live up to being the only child of the late John Lennon and the now 74-year-old Cynthia Powell, John's first wife. Yet he has always viewed life differently despite, or perhaps because of, his journey being so unique and remarkable. Although he is mostly known as a singer-songwriter, musician and producer, Julian actually has many other talents and interests, including that of being a documentary film producer, philanthropist, and a fine art photographer.

As a tribute to his father and The Beatles, Julian has become the curator of an exhibit commemorating The Beatles’ 50^th anniversary of their first U.S. tour. Julian’s eye for photocomposition and aestheticism brings a unique Beatles collection to the public at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York displayed from February 7^th to the 28^th. What sets this exhibit apart from others featuring The Beatles goes without saying; the personal relation between Julian and John Lennon has made this exhibit something that does not occur too often.

The idea stemmed from a guy named Timothy White, a photographer and partner at the Morrison Hotel Gallery, when he came to Julian with the task of looking through a few hundred photographs of his father with The Beatles and choosing 25, or 50 because it was the 50^th anniversary. And so 25 shots are being exhibited at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in the SoHo district until the end of February and another 25 at a gallery in Los Angeles, at which Timothy White is also a partner.

Having curated and chosen the images to be displayed himself, Julian must have had quite a poignant and cathartic experience, especially with photography being his main focus recently. He chose the photographs that evoked emotion and speaks more of the back-story of what the boys of The Beatles were feeling when they were becoming legends in the music industry – and in history. Julian has also said that some of the images display the look of anxiety and fear, an element of numbness, and the reality of the popularity of The Beatles really hitting them. But if there’s one thing that the exhibition will portray clearly, it’s the hell of a ride that the members of The Beatles had.

Photographer: Lara Jade

Lara Jade started her own photography career at the age of 17, originally taking on small clients in England, before becoming a fully fledged Fashion, Portrait & Advertising Photographer in New York City. Jealous yet?

With quality work, came high demand, and Lara has taken it in her stride and her work has been featured in well known fashion and photography magazines worldwide.

Not only is she hugely successful in the social media scene (100,000 fans on Facebook), but Lara is also currently working worldwide and is represented by leading agencies in London, Milan & the USA.

If that’s not enough to inspire you yet, then you should know that she’s sponsored by Canon, Bowens Lighting, Broncolor Lighting, Lensbaby, Wacom, Datacolor, and is currently designing her own range of camera bags for US camera bag brand Naneu.

Some of Lara's work:

James Bond - The Spy who cannot Die

“This man is supposed to be a spy and yet everybody knows he is a spy. Every bartender in the world offers him martinis that are shaken not stirred.”

-       Roger Moore

Not many enterprises can boast of never going out of fashion or of never failing to get people talking fifty years down the line. It’s been fifty years since the first Bond film, Dr No, and this past week saw the Bond brand still going strong with the release of the latest film, Skyfall.

The James Bond brand has become such an ever-present part of society that we take for granted the lengths that are gone to to keep the fire of the enterprise burning bright. One of the tricks to this feat is that the Bond character is continually being reborn – from only falling in love twice, giving comic relief through Roger Moore, to the laddish Bond portrayed by Pierce Brosnan. The Bond of each time has to some extent fitted into the generation of his incarnation.

It all began with the books from the 50’s penned by Ian Fleming. The 50’s saw radical change, before the flashy and revolutionary 60’s, and people were looking to inhabit a new radical world apart from the horrors and tragedies of the war. Ian Fleming was a radical in his own way and was witness to a different kind of heroes in action – the intellectual badass and the tough, ruthless men who were well-educated and part of high society. They were the commandoes and special agents that inspired Fleming to write the character of Bond, an Eton dropout and government assassin who was bored by the demure traditions of courtship. Even Bond’s name was a deliberate distancing from the convention of upper-class British “gentlemen” crime fighters. Bond might not be a gentleman in the customary sense of the word, but he is a hero in all kinds of ways.

Although the literary embodiment of Bond provided escapism through a spy who traipsed to exotic locations around the world and bedded highly desirable women, he was not suited to the time he was born into through the novels and the words could not quite do justice to his larger-than-life persona and escapades. Bond became the poster boy of the Swinging 60’s – flippant, sexy, amoral, and oh-so-charming. The first Bond, Sean Connery, and arguably the finest, set the bar for the Bond actor very high.

James Bond is a fantasy, but he has become real enough to millions of fans around the world who have remained faithful to the brand for years and will continue to do so just because there is no hero quite like “Bond, James Bond”.