McCartney Times

Happy Birthday Linda McCartney!

 

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Linda Louise McCartney was born in Scarsdale, New York, on 24th September 1941. She graduated from Scarsdale High School, Westchester County, New York in 1960, and went on to study at the University of Arizona, majoring in Art History.

Linda became a professional photographer in the mid-sixties and went on to photograph many iconic musicians of the time: Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Neil Young, and many others. With a portrait of Eric Clapton, she was the first female photographer to have work featured on the cover of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine.

Years later, when Linda and Paul appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, she became the only person to have been photographed and taken a photo for the cover of the magazine: a neat reflection of Linda’s life both in front of and behind the lens.

Following her marriage to Paul McCartney in 1969, Linda’s photographs became more intimate and experimental. She worked with printing processes such as cyanotypes and Polaroid transfers, producing intimate, emotional work exploring the natural world and family life.

In her parallel career as a musician, Linda received credits on her duet album with Paul, RAM, joining her husband on stage as a keyboard player and vocalist in Wings and touring extensively with the band throughout the 1970s.

Linda’s passion for the vegetarian lifestyle and promoting animal rights led to her two vegetarian cookbooks, ‘Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking’ and ‘Linda’s Kitchen’, becoming international bestsellers in the 1990s. She is widely known for helping revolutionize vegetarian home cooking with her food company Linda McCartney Foods.

Linda continued to work prolifically as a photographer until her death from breast cancer in 1998. Her work has been exhibited by institutions including the International Center of Photography in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In 2011 a definitive selection of images from Linda’s thirty-year career was published by Taschen in Life in Photographs. A retrospective touring show of Linda’s work has recently been exhibited in Seoul, South Korea, Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier and Kunst Haus, Vienna.