Linda McCartney – A Life in Photographs – Collectors and Art Editions – Review

Review by Francois

Linda McCartney – A life in photographs is a limited “collectors edition” photography book that is released in 750 pieces run by publication powerhouse Taschen. It is a retrospective of Linda McCartney’s life and photography who started her career with her clearly original and highly informal shots of the Rolling Stones on a yacht on the Hudson River. In May 1968 she became the first female photographer to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. During her career she has photographed some of rock n rolls most influential musicians including including Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Simon and Garfunkel, The Doors, The Who, and the Grateful Dead.

Linda married Paul McCartney in 1969 after they met at a launch event for one of his albums with the Beatles. This book features stunning and very candid photography of many years of touring with the Beatles as well as much of Linda’s family life with Paul. The book really is a must have for rock photography fans. Needless to say hardcore Beetles fans will drool over its contents.
Contributing authors for this book are world renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz and historian and curator Martin Harrison. The book was edited by Alison Castle who also worked on titles on photography, film, and design, such as Some Like it Hot and The Stanley Kubrick Archives.

This edition is released in a truly magnificent clamshell box that gives this edition a very luxurious feel. Lukcily for those with a slightly smaller waller, the book is available in a number of different sizes and options. These range from a very affordable general edition, a limited collectors edition of 750 copies and two very special art editions that include a pigment print on Hahnemuehle paper, numbered and signed by Sir Paul McCartney in a print size of 40 x 30 cm (16 x 12 in.). Needless to say the latter will undoubtably become a highly sought after version that will make an interesting investment to those interested in buying and selling high end art books. We caught up with this book at a bookstore in Berlin and were quite impressed with it’s quality. So much in fact that I seriously considered buying this book and if it hadn’t been for my wife pointing towards another quite expensive yet awesome title it would be sitting on my desk right now.

Positives

• beautiful clamshell box
• avaiable in a wide range of sizes and pricing options
• a must have for any rock photography fan
• interesting investment for art book afficionados
• high quality

Negatives

It’s hard to fault such an impressive publication. Although some will contend that the art editions have a fairly steep pricing it must be said that those will get you limited edition prints of some very fine photography artwork that would likely fetch considerately more when you’d purchase these through an art gallery.

The Verdict

With an average price of around 2 grand (at the time of this publication) the high end versions of this book will likely be out of reach for most general collectors, but avid rock photography fans cannot afford to miss it. If you want one we suggest buying it right now before the limited runs is out of stock. If you want the art edition there’s a pretty good chance it will be sold out by the time you read this.