Iain Macmillan

Iain Macmillan

Iain Stewart Macmillan was born on October 20^th 1938. Iain was born in Dundee Scotland and he was most famous for taking the picture of the Beatles album cover Abbey Road in 1969.

Iain Macmillan started his photography in London in 1958 when he moved from Dundee. He studied photography at Regent Street Polytechnic. His first job as a photographer was as a cruise photographer, that didn’t last long as he went back to Dundee in 1959 to photo street scenes. Iain did very well for himself and this earned him The Sunday Times and the Illustrated London News commissioned him in the early 1960’s. Once he started to make a name for himself in the mid 1960’s he worked on an exhibition catalogue for the sculpture of David Wynne. He also photographed The book of London in 1966.

1966 to 1969 where the best years for Iain Stewart Macmillan, in 1967 Iain Macmillan met John Lennon, they got on really well and the next year John Lennon asked Iain Macmillan to do one of his biggest jobs yet and that was to photograph the beetles on Abby Road for their new album, Iain was thrilled and jumped on the opportunity. Iain was given a sketch by Paul McCartney a couple of days before the shoot, this picture showed were everything needs to be, the Iain Macmillan done his own version of the sketch. Iain Macmillan on the 8^th August 1969 Iain took 6 photos

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->1. John leads the group from left to right followed by Ringo, Paul and George. They kept this order throughout all the photos. There is a Mercedes pulling out of the studio behind them. John is looking away from the camera and Paul and George are in mid step. Paul is wearing sandals

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->2. They walk back in the same order. Good spacing but only John has a full step.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->3. Left to right again, full steps this time but they are all too far left. There is now traffic back up. There is a taxi, two vans and a double decker bus waiting to come forward. Paul is now barefoot.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->4. Walking right to left, once again Paul Ringo and George all in mid step. The traffic has gone through but the bus has stopped to watch. This photo is the cover of Abbey Road by Brian Southall.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->5. This photo was used for the cover of the album and is the only photo where we see Paul smoking. The only one with their legs in perfect formation. The three men on the left above Paul's head are Alan Flanagan, Steve Millwood and Derek Seagrove. They were interior decorators returning from a lunch break. On the right side between John and Ringo's head is Paul Cole an American tourist.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->6. Ringo slightly too far behind John.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->After the shoot Iain went off to find a road sign to use on the back cover of the album. The picture was taken on the corner with Alexandra Road, during Iain photographing the sign a girl with a blue dress walked through the shot. This made Iain angry but that shot was chosen as the back cover as the company thought it worked well. The wall with the sign was demolished several years later.

Once Iain completed this photo shoot this made him very big he then continued to do a lot of work;

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->The cloud on the album cover for Live Peace In Toronto

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->Photos on the album Some Time In New York City

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->The wedding cake in the Wedding Album

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->Yoko’s book files

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->The cover photo on Yoko’s book Grapefruit

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->The merging heads label of John and Yoko’s Vinyl single Happy Xmas

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->The merging heads label of John and Yoko’s album Some Time In New York City

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-         <!--[endif]-->Kenny Rodgers and The First Edition Cover Photograph of Something’s Burning.

In the 1970’s Iain decided to pass his traits onto other people and started teaching at a college in Stoke-On-Trent, in 1980 Iain took another album cover “Hinge the Bracket” at Abbey Road which was a parody of the Beatles photo. His work was on an exhibit in the US, Britain and Europe, also the BBC used some of his photos in the series “Rock and Roll Years”. On July 22^nd 1993 Iain photographed Paul McCartney at Abbey Road on the Zebra crossing, this time he did something different and added an Old English sheepdog, This photo was used on the cover of Paul is Live album.

 
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