SL Book: Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs

Books are one of my passions. I love everything about them:  the way they look, smell, and feel. Oh and I also relish a fantastic story.

I especially adore and now especially appreciate photography books…which undoubtedly has contributed to my budding interest in snapping my own shots (and sharing them here, of course).

My favorite new find is Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs, from Taschen. It is a retrospective volume – selected from Linda McCartney’s archive of over 200,000 images – produced in close collaboration with Paul McCartney and their children. The book has the photographer Annie Leibovitz and Martin Harrison, a historian of art and photography and an exhibition curator, as the contributing authors. In other words, it’s VERY well done!  I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The world through Linda McCartney’s lens is not just a document of the rock ‘n roll world from the sixties on but also a moving personal journal and a lasting testament to her talent. I am especially enamored by her touching photographs (often spontaneous) of her family.

There is a wonderful sense of balance and love that seems to resonate throughout these images.  Her work feels unassuming and fresh…and displays a warmth and a feeling for the precise moment that captures the essence of any subject. Whether photographing her children, celebrities, animals, or a fleeting moment of everyday life, she seemingly did so without pretension or artifice. It feels like Silver Linings abound.

Here are some of my favorite shots from this Silver Lining book. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

 

 

I’m crazy about this photograph of Stella as a toddler.  One of my dear friends believes that in the life of a child, no day can be good unless it’s filled with messiness.  Clearly, Stella had a great day!

 

 

 

You don’t take a photograph.  You ask, quietly, to borrow it.

~Author Unknown