The Ballad of John & Yoko: Falling In Love by Ethan Russell

Photography by Ethan Russell © Yoko Ono. All rights reserved.

“You must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties…. as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” - Edward VIII

“Anybody who claims to have some interest in me as an individual artist, or even as part of The Beatles, has absolutely misunderstood everything I ever said if they can’t see why I’m with Yoko…. If they can’t see that, they don’t see anything. “ - John Lennon

Author and photographer Ethan Russell’s new exhibition, The Ballad of John and Yoko: Falling in Love, will premiere at Blender Gallery in Sydney on May 12th and run through June 18th, 2011.

After the wonderfully successful exhibition “LET IT BLEED – The Rolling Stones 1969 U.S Tour” showcased in 2010, Blender Gallery is proud to welcome Ethan Russell’s newest exhibition.

The exhibition, featuring photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono – some never before exhibited and never presented as a whole - explores the genesis of the couple during their early days when first falling in love.

Chosen by John Lennon in 1968 as his go-to photographer, Ethan Russell captured John and Yoko’s budding romance over the course of several months, largely in Lennon’s home and other private environments. Russell’s photographs convey an innocence and depth of feeling between them that remained largely invisible in the face of the international outpouring of public scorn that greeted their relationship.

Russell has interpreted their story as being not unlike that of Prince Edward and Wallace Simpson – the British monarch who gave up his thrown for the woman he loved. In both cases, the general public and the some of their closest friends and associates turned against them, and they slipped from being the recipients of extraordinary adulation to objects of enmity.

Through this collection of large 30x40”, 20x24” and 16x20” images presented with printed texts, the exhibition provides a highly personal look at two individual artists who created a new life with one another, and seeded a collaborative political movement that would influence the world.

The Ballad of John and Yoko: Falling in Love pays tribute to one of the most remarkable love stories in modern history.