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The Hindu
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
A photographic tribute to John Mandeen's time at Auroville
Capturing Life, a selection of photos from Auroville across four decades (1980 to 2020) by the late photographer, John Mandeen, will be featured at Centre d' Art, Auroville, till August 10.. John passed away on July 7, last year, and this exhibition — organised by Franz Fassbender, founder of Prisma, one of the Auroville units that specialises in publishing and distributing books— is a homage to John's time spent in India and spotlights Auroville through his lens. John, who grew up in northern California on the Pacific coast north of Big Sur and Carmel, came to India at the age of 24, in 1968. A month later, he ended up in Pondicherry at the Aurobindo Ashram, where he was accepted by the Mother (Mirra Alfassa) as an ashramite. 'He was an artist whose medium of expression ended up being photography,' says Sunaina Mandeen, his wife of 43 years. John acquired his first serious camera, a Pentax SLR in a rather unusual way. An Australian friend of his, who needed money to return to Australia from Auroville, offered to sell him his camera. Before this, John only owned a simple point-and-shoot camera. 'He was totally self-taught. He started reading a lot, he would get whatever photography magazines he could lay his hands on, and at one point, his sister from America used to subscribe and send him photography magazines through post,' recalls Sunaina. John, through his reading, learned that processing black and white film with cold water yielded the best results. Lacking a refrigerator back then, he would cycle to an ice factory, buy a large block of ice, cycle home, and use the ice to cool the developing tanks for his film processing. 'He loved cameras, lenses and all accessories as much as the darkroom equipment and the process of developing and printing high quality photos. But most of all, he loved taking photos,' says Sunaina. He also taught photography at the Last School in Aspiration township to many children in Auroville. Recently, he had been working with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives on a new book. 'He worked only with natural light. There is a certain kind of beauty and poise in the photographs of John, which is something that people need to be reminded of through the exhibition,' says Sunaina. The exhibition will be featured at Centre d' Art, Auroville till August 10. Tuesday to Friday 2pm to 5.30pm and Saturday 10am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 5.30pm
Telegraph
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Beatles pictures rediscovered by Paul McCartney in lockdown on sale for more than £60k
Beatles pictures rediscovered by Sir Paul McCartney during lockdown after 60 years are now going on sale for more than £60,000. Fans of the Fab Four will be able to purchase prints of images taken by the 82-year-old singer when the band took the US by storm in 1963. He had bought a new camera in the 60s, a little 35mm Pentax SLR, before boarding a Pan Am Flight to the US for their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. McCartney captured fun moments throughout the trip, from the flight to New York and their walks through Central Park to their time in Miami before appearing on the show. During the pandemic Sir Paul made the discovery of contact sheets, slides and negatives, which he had boxed away and forgotten about for 60 years. They went on display in the Eye of the Storm exhibition, which was initially unveiled at London's National Portrait Gallery in 2023. In the wake of its popularity, McCartney decided to take the images across the globe. The collections of photos titled Rearview Mirror: Photographs, December 1963–February 1964 is currently on display at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills until June 21. Solo images and contact sheets featuring dozens of frames are among the 36 works on sale in ultra-limited editions of six to 10 signed prints. Their prices range from £11,300 to over £64,000. The photos include a mix of colour prints, along with black-and-white images, including self-portraits and snapshots of Beatlemania, along with images from moving vehicles as they made a range of appearances. 'Pictures of a shared awe' Joshua Chuang, the gallery's director at the Beverly Hills venue, told The Hollywood Reporter: 'There's some overlap with the images from Eye of the Storm, but even those images look different in our show. And, yes, the big difference is the fact that you can purchase them. 'This is the only time I can think of where someone of Paul's cultural impact took very good pictures of the exact moment you'd want him to be taking pictures. 'There's almost a sense in his pictures of a shared awe about what was happening to them. Like even they couldn't believe it.' He added: 'Paul's not trying to launch another career as a fine art photographer. These are limited editions – six, eight, maybe 10 copies – and that's it.' Sir Paul was inspired to try painting following a discussion with Willem de Kooning, the Dutch expressionist artist, back in the early 1980s. The Beatle showcased his work in 2000 at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, and again at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in 2002 – just under two decades before his work went on display at the the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 2023.
