Words Mark Rozzo Photography Allan Tannenbaum

Originally published in No 9

Around Thanksgiving of 1980, Tannenbaum found himself headed uptown to the Dakota. There, in the weeks leading up to a tragedy that remains incomprehensible nearly four decades later, he was granted access to the inner realm of the world’s most famous recluses: John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

When it comes to New York in the 1970s, Allan Tannenbaum’s photographs are the pictorial equivalent of such memoirs as Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Duncan Hannah’s 20th-Century Boy. They are intimate and indelible, evoking a lost time when the likes of Richard Hell, Deborah Harry, and David Byrne ruled downtown. But Tannenbaum — the official shutter man for the seminal alt-weekly The SoHo News — captured not only the punk demimonde. In his 50-plus-year career, starting in San Francisco in the ‘60s, he’s shot artists, actors, and politicians, and covered such national tragedies as the Columbine massacre and the September 11 World Trade Center attack. 

MARK ROZZO You started taking photographs during the Haight-Ashbury days, when you were in your early twenties. Any memorable encounters out there?

ALLAN TANNENBAUM Well, one person I got to meet was Neal Cassady. That was absolutely insane — that whole connection to On The Road and Kerouac. I got to ride shotgun with him two times. It was like that car scene in Bullitt! 

MR He wasn’t driving the Furthur bus, was he? 

AT No, no, he was driving a car! But he was wild.

MR You were already shooting then?

AT Yes, I’d started taking pictures with a 35-millimeter single lens reflex and I’d gotten a Hasselblad for my college graduation from my father because I was inspired by the movie Blow-Up. I got some shots of Jimi Hendrix performing. A stagehand or manager said, “I’ll take you backstage after.” So I was back in the dressing room with Jimi Hendrix, but I was too tongue-tied to say anything. I was too awestruck.

MR And then on to ‘70s New York, where you captured so much of what was going on, from CBGB to the Mudd Club and beyond. By the looks of it, you must have been going out every night.

AT I was really quite busy, you know. I wanted to be shooting for a newspaper or magazine. And I used to hang out at Kenn’s Broome Street Bar. One day I noticed The SoHo News — a pile of copies stacked on top of the cigarette machine. This is ‘73. A couple weeks later, a friend called and said, “The SoHo News is looking for a photographer.” So I went over to their office. The founder, Michael Goldstein, is flipping through my portfolio and he stops at a picture I took of Hendrix and he says, “I was Hendrix’s publicist for a while.” Then he goes, “All right, you know how to take pictures.” I was on my way. 

MR The SoHo News seemed to be as much a part of that downtown scene as documenting it. 

AT That’s what made the difference. We used to hang out with the people we covered. So it was great. My first assignment was the Avant Garde Festival, in Grand Central Terminal, and the first frame of that first roll of film for The SoHo News was a picture of Yoko. 

MR And how did you meet John? 

AT I photographed John in 1975 at a rehearsal for what was his last public performance, not that he knew it at the time. Then he went into seclusion for five years, with the birth of Sean.

MR In November 1980, that seclusion was ending and Double Fantasy was coming out. You ended up shooting a solo Yoko cover.

AT We did that session in my studio in Tribeca and I said, “Yoko, we have a great cover here but we need some black-and-white pictures to go inside with the story. Can I meet you at the Dakota?” And she said, “Okay, come for breakfast tomorrow.” So I met her at the Dakota, and we went to her office, Studio One, on the ground floor. I said, “Could we also do some shots with John and Sean?” And she said, “Well, not with Sean, but I’ll call John.” And he came down from their seventh-floor apartment and he said, “Oh yes, I remember you.” 

We took a walk in Central Park and it was great. As we’re walking back to the Dakota, I asked them to stop just at Central Park West so I could get a shot with the apartment building in the background. I was so inspired. When you’re photographing, you know when you’re getting something good. That’s one of the thrills of photography.

MR John paid you a great compliment for your work with them.

AT Yes. Five days later, they called me again. “We’re shooting a video in Central Park. Come meet us.” It was a beautiful, sunny day. After they did these outdoor shots, Yoko said, “Come and get some coffee.” So we went to Café La Fortuna, and Yoko said, “John feels comfortable with you, come with us to the studio.” So we went downtown in a limousine to the Sperone Westwater Gallery, on Greene Street. They had turned part of it into a studio made to look like their bedroom at the Dakota and they had these incredibly beautiful Japanese kimonos. They were to walk into this bedroom scene, disrobe, and simulate making love. I’m taking these pictures, and my mind is completely blown away by what I’m seeing — these tender moments. I remember thinking, “I don’t know if I can believe this.” You could see their love. It was a very real thing.

A few days later, I went up to the Dakota to show the film to John and Yoko. John comes down and he’s kind of waving some photos around: “Yoko, these are great!” And then he sees me and he goes, “Oh, there you are! These are wonderful. You really captured Yoko’s beauty.” That touched me so much.

MR What was their dynamic like?

AT You know, John was his own man. Of course, he deferred to Yoko. He would humor her. If she would say something he felt was silly, he would say, “Yes, Mother.” It was clear they were close collaborators.

MR It also sounds like they were friendly and warm to you, conscious of your role as an artist yourself.

AT Yes, it felt great because John was one of the biggest stars in the world. I’m a huge music fan and my favorite Beatle was John Lennon. So to be hanging around with this guy and photographing him freely! But it was like hanging out with a very regular kind of guy, nothing pretentious. I remember feeling a little self-conscious, like, “Oh my God, I’m talking with John Lennon.” But that went away because he didn’t put you on your guard like that at all. It was like hanging out with your oldest best friend. 

MR You later wrote, “For many months, the sadness overwhelmed me. And I felt unwell.” This was after John was killed. In a way, there was a before 1980 and an after 1980. Everyone who was alive then has that sense of loss, of that being a dividing line.

AT Yeah. It signified the end of the ‘70s, the end of innocence — although a lot of stuff that went on was not that innocent! But it was a creative time with a lot of fun and excitement. And all of a sudden, boom, it ended. 

MR And yet, in 2019, John and his work remain ever-present. And Yoko, at 86 — her reputation as an artist and musician only keeps growing. 

AT The fact that she had a retrospective at MoMA would certainly validate that. She’s very much recognized as an artist.

MR What’s changed when it comes to shooting well-known personalities? 

AT Well, the times are really different. Now, for the most part, everything is controlled and corporate. And there I was dealing directly with these people, you know? Generally, people feel comfortable with me and I feel comfortable with them. But let’s say Beyoncé, if I could photograph her for something would I be able to hang around like that all day? No.

MR What are you working on these days?                             

AT I still photograph, mostly digital. Recently I’ve had shows in Russia and Korea. I’m working on my fifth book and I have so many things in my archive that have not been seen — pictures of Patti Smith, jazz musicians, the cabaret scene. And if there’s a news story, I still go out and cover it. I’m still running out there with my camera.

All images by Allan Tannenbaum © 1980/2019. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

All the photographs were taken during the video shoot on the set of (Just Like) Starting Over from their album Double Fantasy, directed by Ethan Russell. Tannenbaums’s John & Yoko: A Love Story is published by Insight Editions; Limited edition.

Allan Tannenbaum is repped by jblattagency.com

Mark Rozzo is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He is currently working on a book about Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward.