Linda McCartney (American, 1941-1998)
Often working with Town & Country, McCartney became a professional photographer in the mid-1960s, documenting the decade’s musical revolution. She was the house photographer at the Fillmore East in New York City where she took pictures of many famous musicians, including The Beach Boys, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, Otis Redding, Traffic, and Frank Zappa. McCartney was the first woman to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with a picture of Eric Clapton in May 1968. She documented her life in the photographs she shot, including with her family and music career with husband Paul McCartney.
McCartney studied art history at the University of Arizona where she became inspired by the photography of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Edward Steichen, and Edward Weston. Over the course of her career—which included as a member of Wings with Paul McCartney and owning a cookbook company—Linda produced thousands of Polaroids in addition to experimenting with various other printing methods. Her photographs were published in a comprehensive book titled Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era in 1993.
