The Linda McCartney Retrospective

The light comes from within

You know that warm fuzzy you get when you leaf through a family photo album? Sometimes it doesn’t have to be your own family – if you’re visiting with friends and they want to share some history, it’s enlightening. Let’s see what made you you. It’s an honor to be let in on the private moments.

Bring on the warm fuzzies, then, with a visit to The Linda McCartney Retrospective at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography in Tucson.

Step back for a minute to think about it: Linda McCartney had brass ones, that’s for sure. Beatles fans have heard the tale a million times – how Paul pushed her onto the stage to be a part of Wings when she barely knew how to make a C chord on the piano. But there they are, raising a new family in an unrelenting public spotlight while going out on the road to be the band that Paul formed as successor to the biggest popular music juggernaut in the history of popular music juggernauts.

No pressure, right? Especially from the music critic know-it-alls who knew better than the band actually making the music.

She grew into the rock star role, an indispensable part of the chemistry that allowed Paul to create a catalog of music as lasting as his Beatles works. She withstood the onslaught of criticism when some disgruntled road crew ding-dong isolated her vocal track from an early 1990s concert. She was an unapologetic animal rights activist and popularized vegetarian cuisine. She raised a family. She never put the camera down.

Lucky for us, all these years later.

What a photographer — her legacy cemented by her work adorning album, book, and magazine covers for years, but one highlighted in a whole new way in the Retrospective. Inside, a wall of her Polaroids – the most candid of candids, instant in the moment of showing Paul McCartney wailing away on his drum kit or clowning with the kids. A shot of a relaxed John Lennon from the infamous 1974 Los Angeles period.

On another wall, photos of the celebrities who chose pre-fame Linda to catch them at work – Simon and Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors. Her photographs strip away pretense. Sure, it’s a picture of the Beatles, but it comes off as a family candid. Her work makes you forget that she had access to the cream of rock music’s crop. Instead, she’s only sharing pictures she captured of her friends at their most natural and unguarded. She must’ve had that way about her.

The highlights for me were the family pictures. She invites and welcomes us into the McCartney households and holidays around the world. Perhaps she meant to keep them as keepsakes for personal remembrances in years to come but, alas, those years for her were too brief indeed. That Paul and daughter Mary sought to curate this exhibition suggests that they, too, see the photographs as an intimate window into a life that they’re generous enough to share with us.

An adjoining room in the gallery exhibits work from Hazel Larsen Archer, the University of Arizona photography instructor and artist who first urged the mid-1960s Linda (then Eastman) to pick up a camera. Its as much a part of the overarching Linda McCartney Retrospective as are the photos she herself took – the influence is clear and revealing.

We walked away from the Retrospective a little melancholy, owing to the overarching sadness that she died so young but grateful that she left behind such an impressive body of work that spanned art, music, activism, and generosity of spirit.

When we got home our visit, I played Linda’s Wide Prairie album. It’s one I enjoy – I remember buying the 45 of Seaside Woman when it first popped up all those years ago, and then, many years later, our daughter deemed Linda’s outre Oriental Nightfish enough of a favorite to take place of pride on her going-to-school tape. Said daughter is now an elementary school art teacher, in Tucson.

That album includes Linda’s The Light Comes From Within, Paul’s liner notes tell us she recorded it only a few weeks before she died. A great performance filled with punk ethos and determination and a lasting message. It’s clear her photographs brought out her light. I’m delighted we had a chance to see them in such a loving context.

Let’s leave it to none other than Sir Paul McCartney himself to talk about Linda’s photography — Linda’s website this month features Paul’s q-and-a with students from the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography and it’s an enlightening read. Read it at this link.

The Linda McCartney Retrospective is at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography from through August 5, 2023 and is free to visit. For more information, head to the CCP website.