October 19: The photograph as memento.

Let’s simply remember the UK release date 44 years ago, today in 1973, of Ringo Starr’s single, Photograph; it’s a poignant song, with a simple story of an abandoned lover whose only memento of his failed relationship is a photograph.

Starr made a promotional film for “Photograph” in the grounds of Tittenhurst Park in Sunninghill near Ascot, Berkshire, the 72-acre estate that he had recently purchased from John Lennon who had left for New York, never to return to England. Tittenhurst was where the last pictures of the Beatles were made by Californian Ethan Russell (*1945) and Englishman Monte Fresco (1936–2013). Russell, at 23 years old, had stumbled into the rock photography scene in London right at the top through his meeting with Mick Jagger in 1968.

The next year he had been commissioned by the Beatles to illustrate the cover of Let It Be, featuring a quartet of separate portraits.  The older photographer there at Tittenhurst was Monte Fresco, a tough East Ender and a veteran of Fleet Street who became better known for his sports photography noted for its comic qualities. Additional pictures were taken by The Beatles’ assistant Mal Evans, while Linda McCartney, then heavily pregnant, shot some film.

Back to Photograph, which in part was recorded with Ringo singing and playing the drums and George Harrison on guitar, at Tittenhurst where Lennon had set up a recording studio. The pair had begun writing Photograph on a luxury yacht in the South of France in May 1971 with a number of visitors contributing to the lyrics.

Seasoned, 52 year-old Hollywood and rock photographer Barry Feinstein (1931–2011) took the single’s sleeve photo; an iconic and rather comic image of Starr’s head poking through a star formed by his arms and legs under shiny mylar.

The space blanket material was a hot product amongst photographers at the time for its distorting reflections. I remember Athol Smith using it for his colour homages to Andre Kertesz‘s Anamorphics nudes. Here it is used to turn Starr into a glitzy icon based on his name and with a nod to his showy public image; he was just getting into acting during this period.

The album’s release followed in November 1973 with Photograph appearing as the third track. In the grab below from Starr’s (deliberately?) amateurish promotional film for Photograph (featuring a gorilla and David Bowie), he places his hand over his mouth ironically as he mimes to the song as ‘no-lip-service’ to the BBC’s ban on lip-synching.