Linda McCartney’s love of Georgia O’Keeffe: “She’s special”
Before meeting The Beatles, Linda McCartney worked as a photographer for Rolling Stone and then Fillmore East, working alongside names like Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and more. In 1967, Paul McCartney first became drawn to her artistic ways while she was working on a photography assignment in London and soon wrote a string of songs dedicated to their love.
Although it could be said that her contributions to music, both as a soloist and to Wings, elevated her to a realm of cultural importance, her foray into photography provided her with the foundation to explore other artistic realms. Beginning her journey in the mid-1960s, she took candid shots of rock icons, often revealing a more personal side of famous musicians.
She made history in 1968 when Rolling Stone chose her photograph of Eric Clapton for its magazine cover, making her the first woman to have an image adorn the coveted spot. Just a few years earlier, McCartney was learning the tricks of the trade with then-boyfriend David Dalton, who she studied during shots and learned vital aspects of the craft, like how to utilise lighting and composition.
A turning point came when the magazine she worked for got invited to shoot The Rolling Stones on a yacht for a promotion party, for which she immediately put herself forward. “I was the only photographer they allowed on the yacht,” McCartney later said. “I just kept clicking away with the camera, and they enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it, and suddenly I found that taking pictures was a great way to live and a great way to work.”
When asked about her artistic vision, McCartney once likened it to her approach to marriage, explaining: “I believe in a loose rein. Being a rider, I also believe in tightening it and giving it some slack. I’ve captured that art, being so horse-oriented.” Although she felt that many women are oppressed in marriage as they are in art, freedom is still obtainable so long as the circumstances permit.
For this reason, her favourite painter seems like an obvious choice, but only because her own approach to art and photography seems to be well-aligned. Discussing Georgia O’Keeffe, she said: “She’s special. I love her paintings and the fact that she married a photographer and went out to a ghost ranch in New Mexico. It changed her life the same way the Southwest changed my life.”
Continuing, she added: “She went there and followed her own destiny, living very much by herself in the desert, painting these unbelievable paintings. I find that attractive. I’m fascinated with the American Indians, especially the plains Indians, like the Hopi, the Zumi, and the Navajo, and their harmony with nature. I love that simple living.”
For McCartney, art often came hand-in-hand with freedom, and O’Keeffe symbolised just that. As someone whose photographic style was entirely unpretentious and authentic, O’Keeffe likely became endeared to her in a more simplistic manner due to her effortless blend of realism and abstraction. Above all, her paintings invoked wonder, but they also exuded intimacy, something McCartney likely also felt immensely intrigued by.
