Photo exhibit finds love, connection in John Lennon's 'Lost Weekend' in Palm Beach
Get ready to see John Lennon like you’ve never seen him before.
A pop-up exhibit of candid photographs of the former Beatle, taken during his 18-month “Lost Weekend" from late 1973 to early 1975, is coming to the Keshet Gallery in Boca Raton the weekend of Feb. 16.
And the photographer who took them will be there, too.
“The Lost Weekend – the Photography of May Pang” showcases 31 images that cast a vastly different light on a period of Lennon’s life known mainly in rock lore for its overindulgence and excess partying.
Look at Pang’s photographs, and it’s clear the “Lost Weekend” was also about family, friends, love and reconnections.
The intimate glimpse is made possible because Pang was not just traveling in his circle, she was also his lover — one he took at the urging of, and while on hiatus from, his wife, Yoko Ono.
Love may be complicated, but the images collected are not.
There’s Lennon and his son Julian opening Christmas presents on Palm Beach in 1974 (five years before he bought El Solano on A1A and became a brief part-time island resident). There’s Lennon at Disney World walking unnoticed through the Magic Kingdom masses. There’s Lennon walking his dogs through a park in upstate New York.
“Photography was my hobby. I just always had a camera and took pictures,’’ Pang said in a phone interview recently as she sat in a Jacksonville art gallery, a few minutes before the opening of that exhibit.
“I would just pick up the camera and think, ‘Oh, that’s a good shot’ and I would just take them. Of course, as time has gone on (the images) have become iconic because no one else has taken photos like these.’’
Source: palmbeachpost.com