On August 7th 1980 John Lennon and Yoko Ono began secret recording sessions at New York City’s famed Hit Factory for what would become their “Double Fantasy” album. It was sadly to be John Lennon’s final record. To document this historic occasion, John & Yoko enlisted the services of noted Boston photographer Roger Farrington.

Working under top secret instructions, Roger Farrington on the morning of August 7th, 1980, was flown to New York City to meet John and Yoko at their Lennono Music office in the famous Dakota Apartments. From there, Farrington photographed the Lennon’s departing the Dakota, arriving at the Hit Factory, and warming up for that very first musical session. The scene was confusing and complicated as recording technicians were setting everything up while musicians were arriving for the first time.

Farrington still managed to get a few iconic shots of John warming up with his custom made Sardonyx guitar – jamming, smiling and welcoming the musicians – full of creative energy. After shooting only 31 “frames” on the 36 exposure roll of B&W film, Farrington had what was necessary and flew back to Boston to prepare images on deadline for immediate news release. One photograph, personally selected by John & Yoko (shown here on left), was sent out on August 12th, 1980 with the official press release announcement. It was published world-wide.

Roger Farrington was the first official photographer in over five years to photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono. His iconic publicity images and the historic, top secret assignment that produced them, have been documented in interviews, books and magazines around the world for forty years. Many of these images have been exhibited in New York City, Boston, Liverpool, and Tokyo, and are in many private and public collections.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COPYRIGHT ROGER FARRINGTON AND MAY NOT BE COPIED, PUBLISHED OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION AND/OR PAYMENT. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED AND LICENSED BY ROGER FARRINGTON.