Arguably the most famous album front cover in the world is John Lennon, Ringo Star, Paul McCartney and George Harrison strolling across the zebra crossing just outside of London’s renowned Abbey Road Studios for their eleventh studio album Abbey Road, which was released in 1969.
During the shoot for the album’s artwork, only 6 photographs were taken of The Beatles crossing the road and these very shots are to be entered into an auction. Along with a separate photo taken of the Abbey Road street sign, which was used for the album’s reverse side image, the full set of images are to auction at Bloomsbury Auctions on the 21st of November and are estimated to fetch between £50,000 and £70,000. Head of Bloomsbury Auctions Photography, Sarah Wheeler said, “they are incredibly rare. I’ve spoken to other music dealers and no one has been able to find a complete set on the market for at least 10 years“.
The set of pictures where taken by one of Yoko Ono and John Lennon photographer friends Iain Macmillan using only a Hasselblad camera and with the restricted time of only ten mintues, hence the six photos from only six attempts. The fifth shot was eventually picked for the album cover by Paul McCartney because of the perfect spacing between each band member. The image of the road sign used for the back of the album was initially rejected by Macmillan, saying he was annoyed that a girl in a blue dress walked through his shot.
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