Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon

Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon
by May Pang

Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon
List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $17.17
You Save: $12.78 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.85 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: May Pang
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-04
ISBN: 031237741X
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Book Reviews of Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon

Book Review: An Exquisite Trailer for 'Loving John'
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a terrific book. The very fact that Pang was no professional photographer makes the photos all the more intimate. They're uncontrived; they're just part of the life she and John led from late 1973 until early 1975. When John is not posing but just living, he's not an icon but just this guy who happened to write or co-write some of the best pop music of the 20th century and here he is living a life like anyone else. No pretensions. Just mucking about.

But what I liked most about the book was that it served as a stepping stone to May's memoir 'Loving John'. Now THAT'S an indispensable aid to understanding the precarious psyche of John Lennon. How on earth could this book have been allowed to go out of print? Bring it back!

And how absolutely wonderful that John managed to have the most passionate sex of his life with this woman, before trudging back to a mostly-procreative couplehood with Yoko. I just wish May had been a bit more explicit, but I guess moving on to marriage and children puts limits on that.

Both books serve to dispel Yoko's fiction that this era was just a "lost weekend," an insulting dismissal of a very creative stretch that produced both 'Wall and Bridges' and his Rock'n'Roll album, as well as first drafts of songs that would come to fruition on 'Double Fantasy'. Read 'Let's Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010: How to Assemble & Appreciate the 2nd Half of the Beatles' Legacy' to realize just how much Beatle WAS left in John at that time and how much emerged on record. This was not just some little interim for John. This one one of his great loves, and as with Yoko, it leaves an indelible mark on the man's music.

So thank you May Pang for this prequel/sequel to one of the most insightful Lennon memoirs ever penned. How ironic that you found so much to say about John based on a year and a half fling, whereas Yoko has not managed to publish ANY memoir of her dozen years with John. Nothing. How difficult is it to sit down with a question-asker and reminisce into a tape recorder about one's life and then have a ghost-writer stitch it all together? Not difficult at all. It makes one wonder just how much she was into John. At least with Pang, we can tell she was into John in a big way. Anyone else who'd known John Lennon intimately for a dozen years would have written a memoir of that relationship--both for selfish reasons AND for the sake of fans wanting to know as much about the man as possible. Come on Yoko, if you really respect John's memory and the heartfelt wishes of his fans, you'll write that memoir. How could you not?!

Summary of Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon

?There were times I was a bit reticent in taking out my camera, like when some ?old friends? stopped by to hang out. I didn?t want to intrude on these moments, but John insisted.  He felt that I captured him in ways that no one else did because of his comfort level with me?For years, only my closest friends got to see these photos?which were literally tucked away in a shoebox in my closet.  They were surprised that these images did not convey the John that was portrayed in the press during our time together.  In fact, they saw a side of John seldom seen.??From INSTAMATIC KARMA

John Lennon is the most famously photographed Beatle?everyone from Iain MacMillian to Annie Lebowitz took iconic images of him?but there have never been pictures of him like these taken by May Pang, Lennon?s girlfriend from 1973 to 1975. In INSTAMATIC KARMA, they?re collected for the first time.  With very few exceptions, these photos are that rare thing: never-before-seen images of an icon.  The photos here show Lennon in a variety of settings: at work, at play, at home, and away. They show a playful Lennon, a casual, unguarded Lennon; they?re the kind of photos one lover takes of another. May has written rich captions to accompany her photos--taken together, they tell a simple story of the time May and Lennon spent together; a time, according to legend, when Lennon was unhappy and unproductive, estranged from his family and bandmates. Pang?s photos clearly tell another story?they show Lennon clowning around, working on his hit album ?Walls and Bridges?, embracing old friends and family, hanging out in their apartment on Manhattan?s East 52nd Street, relaxing in the country in upstate New York or spending peaceful days swimming in the waters of Long Island.

The photographs in INSTAMATIC KARMA are both color and black & white, casual Polaroids and more composed shots.  Each one is an intimate glimpse into a fascinating time in John Lennon?s life.

Artists, A-Z Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Artists, A-Z Books
Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings ImageRembrandt: His Life, His Paintings
by Gary Schwartz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-11-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $48.50
Life with Lowry ImageLife with Lowry
by Tilly Marshall
Hutchinson; Published: 1981-02-16; Hardcover; Book
Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life ImageAndrew Wyeth: A Secret Life
by Richard Meryman
Harper; Published: 1996-10-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops: $35.00
Georg Baselitz: Paintings 1964-67 [exhibition: May 1-31, 1985] ImageGeorg Baselitz: Paintings 1964-67 [exhibition: May 1-31, 1985]
by Georg Baselitz
Anthony d'Offay Gallery; Paperback; Book
Florence and Its Beauty: A Practical Guidebook to the Town and Its Monuments with 350 Illustrations and a Plan of the Principal Places of Interest ImageFlorence and Its Beauty: A Practical Guidebook to the Town and Its Monuments with 350 Illustrations and a Plan of the Principal Places of Interest
by Sandra Orienti
G. Ramella - Florence, Italy; Published: 1956; Unknown Binding; Book
Lord of the Rings Sketchbook ImageLord of the Rings Sketchbook
by Alan Lee
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2008-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Picasso ImagePicasso
by Patrick O'Brian
Harvill; Published: 1994; Paperback; Book
The Art of Adventure ImageThe Art of Adventure
by Galen Rowell
Collins Pub San Francisco; Published: 1989-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.02
Price in other shops: $19.95
Calder Jewelry ImageCalder Jewelry
Other Distribution; Published: 2007-12-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $364.99
POPism: The Warhol Sixties ImagePOPism: The Warhol Sixties
by Andy Warhol, Pat Hackett
Mariner Books; Published: 2006-09-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.90
Price in other shops: $14.00
Similar Books and other products
Yesterday: The Beatles Once Upon a Time ImageYesterday: The Beatles Once Upon a Time
Vendome Press; Published: 2007-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: $27.50
Beatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection ImageBeatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection
by Brian Southall, Julian Lennon
Goodman; Published: 2011-09-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.36
Price in other shops: $29.95
Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy ImageStarting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy
by Ken Sharp
MTV Books; Published: 2010-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.70
Price in other shops: $26.99
John Lennon: The New York Years ImageJohn Lennon: The New York Years
by Bob Gruen
Stewart, Tabori and Chang; Published: 2005-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $32.50
George Harrison: Living in the Material World ImageGeorge Harrison: Living in the Material World
by Olivia Harrison
Abrams; Published: 2011-09-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.11
Price in other shops: $40.00
Lennon NYC ImageLennon NYC
Alfred Publishing; Release date: 2010-12-07; DVD
Best price: $10.98
Price in other shops: $24.95
Loving John: The Untold Story ImageLoving John: The Untold Story
by May Pang, Henry Edwards
Warner Books; Published: 1983-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $187.50
John ImageJohn
by Cynthia Lennon
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2006-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Lost Beatles Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966 ImageThe Lost Beatles Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966
by Larry Marion
It Books; Published: 2011-03-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.06
Price in other shops: $29.99
Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs ImageLinda McCartney: Life in Photographs
by Annie Leibovitz, Martin Harrison
Taschen; Taschen; Published: 2011-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $59.84
Price in other shops: $69.99
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories