On His New Book ‘Life’s Fragile Moments’

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Since his first exhibition ‘Timeless’ in 2010 at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York City, musician Julian Lennon has enjoyed a parallel career as a successful photographer. His first photography book, ‘Life’s Fragile Moments,’ contains pictures taken over the last twenty years and covers landscapes and portraits from his travels as well as celebrities from Sting to Lana Del Ray. He’s also just released his latest song ‘Because.’ I spoke with Lennon about his favorite drinks, how he began his photographic journey and the similarities between being behind the lens and making music.

When you’re meeting up with a friend what is your drink of choice?

If we’re planning to get a little frivolous and enjoy the evening then I’d lean towards my old favorite which is Jack Daniels and Coke. As a teenager, where you try to grow up too quickly, I’d have a large glass of hard whiskey with some lemonade just to sweeten it up. And yeah, that hurt. So I was off whiskey. But years later I was sitting at the famous rock and roll hotel the Sunset Marquee with my oldest friend and I said you know, I just don’t know what to drink anymore. And he said, “Have you ever tried bourbon? Because I know you like sweet stuff.” And I was off whiskey but he suggested the Coke with it and that was like honey to me. It’s been my go to ever since.

What was your first drink?

In my teenage years I was between England and Ireland. So Guinness of course was the real stuff. Growing up in small towns you’d be down at the pub have a couple of lagers and play pool. But even before that — my first stepfather was Italian. Roberto Bassanini. He was like an older brother to me. And with Italians you sip wine at seven years old sometimes. So my earliest memory is having a sip of wine at a dinner table. (Laughs) And then funnily enough they put me on a donkey in a field — and this was in the evening — and the donkey just charged towards the white picket fence. I remember screaming my head off at seven years old. Anyway, that’s another story.

How did you first get into photography?

I stumbled into it with the help of my dear friend Timothy White, who’s an incredible celebrity photographer. We were doing a charity campaign for my song ‘Lucy,’ which is about the girl from ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ who died from lupus. And I became an ambassador for the American Lupus Society. We were shooting pictures and he said ‘listen Jules, some of your stuff is really great. You should do something with it.’

I didn’t search out being known as a photographer. I just enjoyed the process of capturing those moments, which either motivate us or endear us or you feel empathetic towards. When I did my first-ever exhibition at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in the old CBGB’s in New York, I thought the critics were going to crucify me, literally. Thought they were going to say ‘here’s another one, who does he think he is?’ So when I got the positive response from the show I thought wow. It’s similar to putting musical work out and then playing a live show. An exhibition gets that same feedback from playing live.

Photographers often want to blend into the background and observe what’s happening. Is that harder to do when you’re also famous?

Normally I’ve been really a quite shy character. I’ve been invited into many situations. And I do always want to remain that kind of fly on the wall that captures what feels important to me as a viewer. One of my earlier experiences with U2 — I was invited by The Edge and I was scared out my brain. I was very fortunate to come out of that with a couple of great shots. One in particular with Bono and a photo of my dad (John Lennon) in the background.

There are some other musicians in the book ‘Life’s Fragile Moments,’ Sting, k.d. lang, where I do some high contrast black and white stuff of them between rehearsals and the main show — and again, fly on the wall, stay out of everyone’s way and just try to get something special. And I love that. Again, it’s not dissimilar to music where you find a melody for a song that just makes it for you.

It’s about trying to discover new things on all these different horizons. And it makes me nervous as hell. On many occasions I felt that I’ve walked away with nothing. That’s what happened with Princess Charlene (of Monaco). Ten minutes before her wedding Vogue had reached out to me and said we need a picture ASAP after the wedding. I came back home, brought everything up on the computer and I almost started crying because I thought I’ve got absolutely nothing.

But now it’s the cover for your book.

Sometimes I find the photo within the photo later on. And what I did is I started playing around with it. (Laughs) I’d been asked by Princess Charlene,“Jules, whatever you do don’t show me with a cigarette or champagne in my hands.” Vogue wanted a picture of her smiling — and of course the only picture of her smiling was with a glass of champagne and a cigarette in her hand. So I desaturate it, cropped it in a certain way. And I went oh my God! Princess Grace. The 50s. Black and white. The old classics. And then the rest of her collection came together like that.

You give your subjects a lot of space. Nowadays people see small images on their phones so there’s a tendency to crop in on everything.

It’s about letting the image breathe. Letting the subject have space and air. I want to show the location and feeling and emotion that’s coming out of a picture. And by cropping half of that out you’re losing half the story.

Do you travel a lot for photography?

No, I wish more. With my travels for my White Feather Foundation, I just wanted to catalogue what the foundation was doing. Then I realized there were stories to tell. And people would tell me the reason why they love what I do is because some people can’t travel. They can’t afford it. They’re unwell or physically unable to. So these are stories from the other side of the world that they’ll never get to see otherwise.

I’m sure you’ve gotten to meet a lot of your own idols. Was there ever a meal or drink you shared with one that stands out?

I’ve been honored to have met many an idol. One in particular was David Bowie. He was, and still is, one of my ultimate musical heroes and creative geniuses in my book. I was taking a year out of America and I ended up in Montreux, Switzerland where the festival is. Little did I know that it’s not as energetic when the festival isn’t on. But when you’re walking down the street you may just bump into David Bowie (laughs). Which is what happened to me. And we just sat in the cafe for a good afternoon talking about life. I wish we’d have been a bit closer. I’m a motorcyclist and when he was doing the ‘Glass Spider Tour’ (1987) I would follow him and the band through Europe on bike. I wish I’d have been a photographer then! If there was any point that I’ve regretted not having a camera with me it would have been then.