Unseen John Lennon And Yoko Ono ‘Bed-In’ Photos Found
A man in Outaouais in Canada has made an amazing discovery. While searching for an old negative of a snow sculpture, John Urban accidentally came across negatives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in, held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal in 1969. He had never seen these images before and was “pleasantly surprised.”
“I was pleasantly surprised. It made my day.”
At first, Urban thought the negatives must surely belong to his former roommate, Frank Antonsen, who had borrowed his camera to take shots at the bed-in. He thought Antonsen must have left the roll in the camera by mistake.
ICYMI: Montreal man finds negatives of Lennon/Ono bed-in from 1969. Full story: http://t.co/hnscD66gW2 pic.twitter.com/0rn5VNE0FM
— CBC Newfoundland (@CBCNL) March 8, 2015
However, CBC News interviewed Antonsen, who said that while he was at the bed-in as a journalist, he had only taken a tape recorder with him, not a camera. He did say that Nathan Wolkowitz, a photographer who attended the event with him, might have taken the photos, but he has since apparently passed away.
Urban said that the negatives were on a 36-exposure roll and that he looks at them every day.
“I look at these and say, I’d better put them on the scanner and blow them up cause I’ve never seen them before.”
Urban used to work as a photographer before switching career paths to become a goldsmith, making wedding rings, but he still has many negatives.
“A long time ago I tried to make it as a photographer, and in the course of that I accumulated many, many, many negatives.”
“It’s worthwhile to dig through your old belongings because you may discover something that you’ve forgotten about or weren’t even aware of.”
He said they have been lying there all this time, just waiting to be discovered in the box of photos and negatives.
“They’re all candid photos.”
French-language ICI Radio Canada says Urban is sure that he didn’t take the photos himself and is trying to track down the photographer. If he is unsuccessful, he says he will auction the previously unseen negatives.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono bed-in images found in Outaouais: A west Quebec man has discovered negatives of the John… http://t.co/Nx5c8Qyk0X
— Montreal Press (@MontrealCP) March 7, 2015
According to Urban, he has no idea if the images have any value, but that he would donate any funds he raises from an auction between the New Democratic Party and Amnesty International.
While John Lennon’s legacy lives on in so many ways, the Inquisitr did, however, report on an uglier side of the former Beatle as the papers from his divorce to former wife Cynthia were recently revealed.
[Photo by Keystone / Getty Images]
