Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart. Coming up tomorrow, we're going to continue our Equalizer series with women who produce and engineer music. We have a special conversation planned. I'll be speaking with Wendy and Lisa, as in Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. You may know them from their start as part of Prince's band The Revolution. They became the first women in the history of the Grammys to receive a nomination for Producer of the Year for their work on Purple Rain. Wendy and Lisa will be my guests tomorrow on the show. That's in the future. Let's get this hour started with Julian Lennon.

[music]

Alison Stewart: Julian Lennon is a musician and a photographer. His latest exhibition in Chelsea is titled Reminiscence. Featuring never-before-seen photographs, the show builds on Julian's lifelong pursuit to explore humanity, nature, and the interconnectedness between the two. The pictures take us to Cuba, Joshua Tree, and Japan. While speaking about Julian's work, the gallery's director, Emmanuel Fremin, said his work transcends the boundaries of traditional art, offering not only visual brilliance but also a profound message about our shared responsibility for the world around us.

Reminiscence opens tonight at the Fremin Gallery at 520 West 23rd Street. Julian Lennon is in studio with me now. Welcome to the show.

Julian Lennon: Hello. That was a very nice intro, that's for sure.

Alison Stewart: When you were thinking about putting together these images, what kind of story did you want to tell about humans and about nature?

Julian Lennon: The real fact of the matter is I've been doing this for-

Alison Stewart: A while?

Julian Lennon: -a good while now. My initial interest for photography really came out of-- I have a foundation called The White Feather Foundation. We do a lot of work around the world. Initially, it was looking after indigenous cultures, protecting their history, their story, their lands, etcetera, et cetera. I used to go on these trips around the world to South America and Ethiopia and Kenya. I have the worst memory in the world, and I honestly mean that.

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Julian Lennon: I decided to take a camera because, that way at least, I'd know what I did. After going on these journeys and meeting these incredible cultures, I'd look through the photos and see that there were some great stories in there. I just felt that a lot of people, at least I've had emails and letters come in, that a lot of people, whether it's financial or whether they're unable, physically to travel around the world, say, this is a way for them to see what people are like on the other side of the world, for them to have empathy with what's going on with these people on the other side of the world and another way for them to travel.

That became a real focus for me on putting my collections together initially. Then slowly but surely, with these travels, landscape pictures and more portraiture came out of that. It's all about telling a story.

Alison Stewart: It's like creating a window in for people who can't go to these places.

Julian Lennon: Correct. That's exactly the point. Again, also for me to know-

Alison Stewart: Where I've been. [laughs]

Julian Lennon: -where I've been and what I've done. Yes, indeed.

Alison Stewart: One of the pictures in this show is titled Reminiscence, and it's a picture of the Statue of Liberty far, far in the--

Julian Lennon: Yes, from the Staten Island Ferry. The first and last time I've ever been on it. Well, not necessarily the last, but I mean, that was the last time I was on it. Yes, quite a few years.

Alison Stewart: Why did you decide to name the show Reminiscence?

Julian Lennon: Again, most of the work and most of the exhibitions I have done relate to memories. Reminiscence was just a beautiful word that I found that added some gravitas, some weight to the visuals that you were seeing because I wanted to have titles that, number one, you had to look up. I found Reminiscence by mistake. I tried to find more intriguing titles that broaden my horizon more than anything on language.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about Cuba. Why did you go to Cuba initially?

Julian Lennon: Why not?

Alison Stewart: It's beautiful.

Julian Lennon: Well, yes. Now, I had a friend down there and she started a business where she looked after TV and film production teams.

Alison Stewart: Oh, she was a fixer.

Julian Lennon: Well, I guess, yes. I'd always been, oh, so curious about it. I had a little time off and I said, "Listen, any chance looking after me for a week and just we'll rent an old car and we'll drive around." She set it all up and we went down. I just had the most amazing time. It was just so incredible, so beautiful, so sad at the same time. The people were amazing. A great memory for me and a place that I would go back to time and time again.

Alison Stewart: There's one image. It's a vintage car and it's parked in a square and there's people walking all around. When you choose to make a picture, how do you choose your focal point in a scene like that? Is it the car? Is it the people? How do you decide what you're going to concentrate on?

Julian Lennon: Well, that's funny you say that. I don't think I'm like a lot of photographers because I generally tend to take a picture of a scene as opposed to a specific focal point unless it's a portraiture kind of thing. Generally, for me, it's about taking an overall image of a time and a place that I see so that you can really understand what that felt like, what the scene was about, and all the different characters that played in that scene. That's it. Unless I really, really have a focus on one particular character or a particular thing. Generally, I like a landscape, an overview of what you see.

Alison Stewart: For example, on that, the car is important as the lady in the corner-

Julian Lennon: Of course.

Alison Stewart: -who's crossing the street or the kid who's playing a ball?

Julian Lennon: Yes, they all tell a story. It's all different chapters within the frame of it all.

Alison Stewart: If people want to see a picture of that, they should go to our Insta story, @allofitwnyc, so you can see what we're talking about. You have a series of pictures of Joshua Tree. It's just a beautiful, beautiful landscape. What caught your attention as a photographer about this scene?

Julian Lennon: I have to say I'm intrigued by lots of beautiful things that I've seen. With many of these things, they're all places that I've heard about-

Alison Stewart: Interesting.

Julian Lennon: -and that if I get a few days off, I'll rent a car and I'll just go. That's predominantly how most of these collections come about, is I was in LA working and a friend was there and I said, "Ever been out there to Joshua?" They said, "No." I said, "Let's go." Literally rented a car that day, drove out there, drove through Joshua, took what I felt were unique and fascinating images, and drove back that night. These trips are just day trips as well. Not specifically for photography and for collections. Again, it's all about the places that I've been, and what I felt, and some of the emotion therein.

Alison Stewart: I was looking at the three of them in a row and I thought to myself, "Are these meant to be taken as a series? Are they meant to be taken individually?"

Julian Lennon: No, they're part of a whole collection. I have-- I don't even know how many collections I have. There's about 20 or 30 in that collection, something like that.

Alison Stewart: The thing that's very different about each one is the sky. Does that happen? Is that you sitting around thinking like, "I'm going to wait for the sky to change?" Do you capture the moments as they happen?

Julian Lennon: Moments as they happen. That's it. It's that simple. If I wanted to go out of my way for something particular, certainly I would, but generally, I let the view speak for itself. I just, again, try and capture that moment that I think is appealing to me, that says something to me in some way, shape, or form.

Alison Stewart: My guest is photographer Julian Lennon. His new exhibition, Reminiscence, explores themes of humanity, nature, and interconnectedness. The show, which opens tonight, is a display at the Fremin Gallery through Sunday, April 6th. What first piqued your interest in photography?

Julian Lennon: I think, again, memory. I have to say that I was intrigued by-- Actually, I used to have a Hi8 video camera and make little films because I'm involved in documentary work too. I think the thing that most intrigued me was when I was about 11 years old, Dad had a camera that was a Polaroid camera called the SX-70. It was a flip-up camera. The thing about it that I loved was that it was, dare I say, instant gratification because you took the picture within a few minutes you saw the picture.

Alison Stewart: You waved it around. [laughs]

Julian Lennon: You waved it around, but that's it. I had tried on a few occasions with real film and I'd been a bit clumsy and destroyed some potentially nice pictures. When digital came along, I kind of fell in love with that. My job, for me at least, I felt that I wanted to try to make digital images look like film, so that was a challenge to myself. I felt that I managed to do that because I was part of an exhibition called Brit Week in Amsterdam, where it was a collection of come together.

I was cornered by a journalist who was an American fine art critic. She'd had me in the corner for a while. At the end of the question, she said, "Can you tell me, is it digital or film?" I said, "Well, you tell me." Because she couldn't tell, that immediately said to me, "Okay, I've done it." In my mind, that makes sense to me that if she can't tell, then that's great.

Alison Stewart: That's very interesting. There are images of people as well. There's a photo of a geisha. Who is the woman in the photograph?

Julian Lennon: The geisha?

Alison Stewart: Yes.

Julian Lennon: She was just a geisha at a restaurant, but she had such an intriguing painted face that I just said, "Can I please take a picture?" Again, all of these images, dare I say a bit of plugging, are in my first-ever photography book called Life's Fragile Moments, which I've just released at the end of last year. We sold out already, so I can't tell you those who have bought it how thankful I am. Hopefully, mid to end of this month, they'll be available again. It's a collection of all my work over the last 10, 15 years.

Alison Stewart: Yes, that photo of Life's Fragile Moments, you said something in a Facebook message to people. You're really moved. You said, "You don't know how grateful I am and how special this is." Why do you feel that way?

Julian Lennon: Because I'd been doing this for so many years. I'd approached a number of publishers, but never got anything back. I was approached last year by this company called Tenoise out of Germany, out of Berlin. They were willing to go along with what I wanted out of a photography book, which was a retrospective of all the work that I've done because many, many people don't know that I am a fine art photographer.

This was a way of compiling all of my better work, I would say, from all the collections that I've done so that people could see what I get up to in between the music, in between the children's books, in between the documentary work, and in between working on The White Feather Foundation. I wear a lot of hats. This was a great way to be able to share what I did on the photography front.

Alison Stewart: Some of your images date back to 2010. We're talking 15 years. What has changed about you as a photographer in those 15 years?

Julian Lennon: I think, like most photographers, we tend to shoot less and focus on what really catches us, catches my eye. I'm driven by images. I've said it in a number of interviews on film and otherwise, that if I see something and it moves me, I have to take a picture. That's it. There's no choice. Generally, it's something that is relatable to other people or that will move other people in some way, shape, or form.

Alison Stewart: Is there ever a time you won't take a picture?

Julian Lennon: Oh, I don't think so. I have to say that I am quite a shy person, but I do tend to do guerrilla photography or street photography, which means that nothing is ever set up. It's always by chance. I just hope to capture things most of the time. That doesn't always happen. Sometimes I can lose out because also I'm not a technical photographer, just like I'm not a technical musician. I can't read or write music. I consider myself a writer more than a player. I'm thankful, with photography and the cameras these days, that I can capture that moment without fiddling around too much.

I do a fair amount of post-work, just making sure that the image I've taken is what I want people to see. It doesn't mean that I go in and Photoshop everything like that. It's not about that. I don't think that there's anything that I wouldn't take a picture of, whether I would show it, I don't know. It depends on the moment, the politics, the situation. For the most part, I don't think I've denied anything so far.

Alison Stewart: It's interesting, the gentleman who just won the Oscar for The Brutalist, the score, doesn't read music.

Julian Lennon: Right. I did see a little clip of that, which I found fascinating, which is great. That just shows you that it comes from deep within, I think.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Julian Lennon. We're talking about his new exhibition Reminiscence. It is at Fremin Gallery. It starts today and it runs through Sunday, April 6th. Do you have any series of pictures in the exhibition which are particular favorites of yours?

Julian Lennon: Well, I have to say Emmanuel Fremin curated the show because I wanted him. He knows his audience.

Alison Stewart: Oh, that's interesting.

Julian Lennon: Listen, if he knows his audience and he knows what people would like to see from the artists he works with, then I'm happy to let the gallerists do that on the rare occasion. I've worked with Emmanuel before, 10 years ago. We did a show together. He did the same thing with a series from Ethiopia called Horizon from Africa. He did such an amazing job. I can feel comfortable with letting gallerists like Emmanuel go for it. He'll come from to me for checks and balances, just to make sure that I'm good with everything.

Funnily enough, this is the first time we've printed the Cuba collection on aluminum. It's called Dibond, the process with no frame. The light comes back at you from these images and quite harsh, high-contrast, black-and-white photos from Cuba. It's the first time we've printed them like this. I fell in love with them.

Alison Stewart: Tell me, how do you feel about it?

Julian Lennon: I was blown away by them, absolutely blown away because I've only printed on paper some of the Cuba work before, but this on the aluminum with the reflection, high contrast, and much bigger pictures, 30 by 40. It was impressive. Really, really impressive, which inspires me, of course, to continue on so many levels.

Alison Stewart: Was it hard to give over the curatorial helm to another being, your work? You have to give it over and say, "Okay, assemble as you like."

Julian Lennon: Listen, normally, I would take care of that all myself. I just finished the biggest exhibition that I have ever done. It was in Venice last year at the International Center of Photography, which is a museum. That, too, was about being a retrospective, a collection of all the better work. That was many, many months in the process of putting that together. Funnily enough, I'd just done the book before that.

Life's Fragile Moments, the book became my guide in putting the show together. I'm quite particular under most circumstances, especially if it's a show like that. Again, with the Fremin Gallery, I've worked with him before, I trust him immensely and I do get to see and sign off on the images that he does choose. It was absolutely fine. Not something I normally do, but on the odd occasion, I feel comfortable.

Alison Stewart: I got this great text here that says, "I miss Julian's music, but applaud his talent in any direction." This brings me to your musical, A New Dream.

Julian Lennon: Oh, New Dream.

Alison Stewart: A New Dream, where you've worked with Gregory Darling. Tell us a little bit about that.

Julian Lennon: He's an old friend of mine and we get on famously. He's a great singer-songwriter. We love to work together. We've worked on many albums together, of my albums and some of his work too, and also toured around the world together. New Dream was just, I think, timing. With everything that's going on in the world right now, we're all hoping for something a little better. New Dream was an important one too. He just felt like it was time to update it and re-release it. I was right behind him on that one.

Alison Stewart: Julian Lennon's photographs can be seen at the Fremin Gallery until Sunday, April 6th. It's called Reminiscence. That's the name of the exhibition. Julian, thank you for being with us.

Julian Lennon: My pleasure. I do have a request. Could you pass on a hello to Wendy and Lisa, whom I've met many, many moons ago but haven't seen in years and years and years? Please send my best, pass on my love.

Alison Stewart: I will send it on to Wendy and Lisa, and we'll go out on A New Dream.