I’ve always loved the cover of the Plastic Ono Band’s first album. John and Yoko under a tree. No props, no fuss, no performance. Just two people, a bit of negative space, and a feeling that what you’re looking at is honest. It’s one of those images that feels completely natural and completely intentional at the same time. I’ve carried it around in my head for years without really thinking about it.
I shot this photo (not the John and Yoko one, the second one) at a wedding at the Foundling Museum in London (@foundlingmuseumevents). During the couple portrait shoot, we slipped out to Brunswick Square Gardens, which sits just across the road. It was autumn, the light was soft and diffuse, and the oak trees were doing that thing they do when the season starts to turn. Everything slowed down a bit.
As soon as we walked under the trees, the album cover popped into my mind. Not in a forced way, more like a nudge. The composition, the spacing, the way the branches framed the couple. I showed them the image on my phone and asked if they’d be up for loosely recreating it. No pressure, no exact copy, just the spirit of it. They were into it, which always helps.
What I like about moments like this is that they don’t feel staged, even though there’s an idea behind them. The couple weren’t acting or posing in any dramatic way. They were just standing together, comfortable, present, and connected. My job was mostly to notice it and get out of the way.
Sometimes one good image you’ve lived with for years shapes how you see the world without you realising it. It sits there in the background, and then one day, the light, the place and the people line up, and it quietly finds its way back out through the camera.
