Abbey Road; 50 anniversary photo session

Friday 8 August 1969 at 11. 35am, saw an especially important assignment. John and Yoko’s friend, freelance Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan, balancing himself and his Hasselblad camera up a stepladder in the middle of Abbey Road, had just six attempts to get it right: he photographed the four Beatles as they walked back and forth across the zebra crossing just south of the studio gates. He used a 50mm wide-angle lens, aperture f.22, at 1/500 sec. 

Frame nº 1

The cover shot took about ten minutes. The Beatles crossed the zebra (pedestrian) crossing several times while Macmillan snapped away. Iain took six quick shots, a friendly policeman obligingly holding up traffic. A while later, Paul studied the six transparencies with a magnifying glass. Shots 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6 turned out relatively poorly, the Beatles being out of step. But the fifth was the one which satisfied a curious desire on the part of the Beatles at this late stage in their career, so the choice was obvious, and the fifth photograph appeared on the front cover of the group’s last recorded album released on 26 September 1969. 

Frame nº 2

Frame nº 3

A certain section of Beatles fans interpreted Paul’s barefootedness as an indication - especially when allied with other “clues” - of his death and replacement by a McCartney clone. Another ‘clue’ was the white Wolkswagen Beetle with the number plate ending 28 IF. This was taken to read 28 IF by the same obsessives, implying that Paul would have been 28 IF he were still living. The white Wolkswagen owner lived in the block of flats next door. He always parks his car there. After the album was released some of his car parts were stolen one time and another. Finally, exhausted the LMW 28IF number plate car was auctioned at Sotheby in 1986.

Frame nº 4

It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that, since 1969 for 365 days a year, that zebra crossing has been trampled over by by Beatles fans from all over the world. Many even take their shoes off, emulating Paul McCartney. 

Frame nº 6

For the back cover of the Abbey Road album Iain Macmillan took a photograph of one of the many old-style tiled street signs that could have been found in Abbey Road. The street sign photographed by Iain Macmillan was situated on the south-west corner of Abbey Road, at the junction with Alexandra Road. But don’t bother looking for it now. The street sign and the surrounded buildings were demolished to make way for the Abbey Road housing state in the early 1970s. Enough to create the album’s concept design.

Original back cover photograph

Finally, Linda McCartney was there too on this hot August day taking pictures for her own using a Nikon F camera backed with the magnificent standard 50mm f.1.4 lens:

Technical data:

Hasselblad 500c + Distagon 50mm f. 4

Nikon F + Nikkor 50mm f.1.4

Kodak Film

London, 8 August 1969