NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n
Allan Tannenbaum\u00a0enjoyed a career in music photography that blossomed throughout the ’70s and ’80s A twist of fate for one photographer led him to spend significant time with John Lennon<\/a> in the last weeks of his life.\n<\/p>\n Allan Tannenbaum<\/a> was an emerging rock photographer in New York City in 1975. While spending time with the managing editor of Soho News, where he’d recently been hired, the photographer jumped at the chance to meet the rock legend.\n<\/p>\n Speaking with PEOPLE about his contributions to Elton John: Icon<\/a>, Tannenbaum also shared the story that set the events into motion.\n<\/p>\n “I used to be a big Beatles fan and John Lennon was my favorite. I just thought he was so cool and he was good at music and art and acting, and he was very funny,” he said of that moment.\n<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “So, sure, and we went up to the hotel where he was rehearsing for a performance on a TV special called A Salute to Sir Lew Grade. And he and his band, they were dressed very funny in jumpsuits and they had these life masks on the back of their heads, except John didn’t, but he was in a red jumpsuit. And I was introduced to him and he was very cool,” Tannenbaum recalls.\n<\/p>\n “And then I did pictures, I had them pose for me backstage with him, with the band, and then I did the performance shots. So, those were unique, exclusive pictures, and ultimately that was his last public performance.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Five years later, Tannenbaum crossed paths with Lennon again, this time after the artist was “coming out of seclusion.”\n<\/p>\n “[John Lennon and Yoko Ono<\/a>] were coming out of seclusion to promote a new album that they just had recorded called Double Fantasy. And I suggested to the music editor, Peter Occhiogrosso, with whom I used to work, especially closely at the paper, that we try to do something about John and Yoko and the new album, and he thought it was a great idea,” the photographer recalls.\n<\/p>\n “So, I found out how to get in touch with them and Peter arranged to do an interview with Yoko. His idea was to do something called Yoko Only because everybody used Yoko to get to John. So, he arranged that, and then I arranged that Yoko would come to my studio in Tribeca to do a portrait shoot for the cover of the paper.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n It seemed like a reach for the team, knowing that the artists “were talking to national media,” but also made it that much sweeter when Ono agreed.\n<\/p>\n “She came down to my studio and posed for me, and I got some cool shots of her, which were going to be with the cover story. And then I suggested that we do some pictures of the Dakota and some black and white shots for inside, to go with the article. And so she agreed, and I met her the next day. We actually had breakfast together at 72nd in Columbus, and then we went back to the Dakota. We walked around together.”\n<\/p>\n During their time together, Tannenbaum asked Ono if she’d be open to shooting some of the photos with John and son Sean<\/a>.<\/p>\n “And she said, ‘Not Sean, but I’ll call John.’ So her office, Studio One, was on the ground floor of the Dakota and their apartment was on the seventh floor. She called John, he came down, and I reminded him of meeting him at the Tribute to Sir Lew Grade and he said, ‘Oh, yes, I remember you.’ And I don’t know if that was true, but it was very nice of him to say that he remembered me, but maybe he did, and because that was a unique situation.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Tannenbaum joined the couple for a stroll through Central Park. “We got a lot of nice pictures, they were both wearing leather jackets and she was wearing a cap, and he was wearing a beret, and just some very natural, spontaneous pictures. And then we stopped to do a picture with the Dakota in the background, that’s an image that’s become iconic.”\n<\/p>\n The photographer joined them back at Ono’s office, where Lennon signed copies of the album and gifted Tannenbaum one.\n<\/p>\n “I was doing pictures in the office of them, just candid shots. And I overheard Yoko talking about a shoot that they were going to do, a film shoot to put in a video to promote one of the songs from Double Fantasy. So I said to Yoko, ‘Maybe it would be a good idea to have me on location as a stills photographer.’ And she just said, ‘We’ll see.’ ”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Just a few days later, Tannenbaum got a call informing him the couple were at Central Park and wanted to meet him there.\n<\/p>\n “It was a beautiful day. They were walking around together, and with the film crew. And after they finished the shots in the park, they invited me to have coffee with them at her favorite cafe, which was on 71st Street, called Cafe De La Fortuna. And afterwards, Yoko said, ‘John feels comfortable with you, so you can come with us to the studio.’ And I wasn’t expecting that, but we got in the car, we went down to SoHo, and there was a gallery that had been converted to a film set for the day, and it was the Sperone Westwater Art Gallery,” he shared.\n<\/p>\n “They had lights set up outside, it was made to look like their bedroom in the Dakota, they even had the quilt from their bed, they had some pedestals, other things. The scene that they were shooting was first in their street clothes that they had worn in the park, and then in these beautiful kimonos. They would walk into the set, into the bedroom set, and take off their clothes and be completely nude and pretend to make love in the bed.”\n<\/p>\n Tannenbaum continued, “So I was just going, ‘Wow, this was incredible.’ And it was just me, the film crew, of course, the priority is the film, and so I had to be like a fly on the wall when I got a lot of amazing pictures.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Tannenbaum processed his film from the day and met back up with them at the Dakota days later to share the photos.\n<\/p>\n “John really liked the film, the pictures, and he said, ‘You know what I like about your photos? You really capture Yoko’s beauty.’ So that’s something that I’ll always remember vividly,” the photographer said.\n<\/p>\n “And then they made some selections and we made arrangements to meet a few days later. And I was in the dark room at the SoHo News, finishing up some printing to bring to the Dakota that night, and I got the news that he had been shot.”\n<\/p>\n The former\u00a0Beatles musician<\/a>\u00a0was shot and\u00a0killed outside of his New York City apartment<\/a> on Dec. 8, 1980. He was 40 years old.\n<\/p>\n
\nOne of Tannenbaum’s most unforgettable memories is spending time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, during the final weeks of Lennon’s life
\nThe photographer spoke with PEOPLE about his role in ACC Art Books’ Elton John: Icon<\/a>, and also shared his story with the iconic musician<\/p>\n