The Beatles / Iain Macmillan: The Hasselblad 500C camera used by Iain Macmillan to photograph the cover image for the Beatles' Abbey Road album,

1969, Qty

Footnotes

Provenance:
Offered directly by the Iain Macmillan archive.

Having met John Lennon at the Indica Gallery with Yoko Ono in 1966, Lennon later invited Macmillan to photograph the Beatles for the cover of their final album 'Abbey Road'. Given the Beatles recorded most of their music at the EMI Studios on Abbey Road, St John's Wood, London, they decided to name their last album after the road. Armed with a sketch Paul McCartney had given him a couple of days before of what the picture should look like, Iain knew he didn't have long to get the right shot for the world's most famous band.

On 8th August 1969, at around 11:30 am, a hired policeman stopped the traffic, Iain climbed up a large stepladder in the middle of Abbey Road and took just six pictures of the Beatles crossing the street. In approx 10 minutes Iain shot the band in various orders, but it was frame no.5 that was used for the cover of the album - the only photo where all four of them are striding in perfect formation.

"The whole idea was McCartney's. A few days before the shoot, he drew a sketch of how he imagined the cover, which we executed almost exactly that day. I took a couple of shots of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road one way. We let some of the traffic go by and then they walked across the road the other way, and I took a few more shots. The one eventually chosen for the cover was number five of six. It was the only one that had their legs in a perfect 'V' formation, which is what I wanted stylistically. - Iain Macmillan.

After the shoot, Macmillan went to find a road sign for use on the back cover. Over 50 years on, and the cover for 'Abbey Road' by the Beatles is still undoubtedly one of the most iconic album covers of all time.