Linda McCartney's Wide Open at The Bonni Benrubi Gallery
© 1998 Natalie Hodge, MACCA-L and LindaMac-L
All Rights Reserved

The Gallery is not obvious from the street, it's amongst brownstones on East 76th and is in a brownstone itself. Bonnie Benrubi is located on the second floor in the building, this may seem stupid to share this, but unless you've been there chances are someone might have a hard time finding it, I did.

Well, when I got out of the elevator there it is, on the wall-Linda McCartney's Wide Open is in a black script writing (see scan) with the Standing Stone Horse picture. I was somewhat surprised it was a rather small room, there was 38 pictures in all, most black and white landscapes or nature. I went over to the table and saw the catalogs that were made from these photos.

On this same table was a book that looked just like the other  catalogs/books but this one had a pen sticking out of it, it was a guest sign in. Well, naturally I opened it up and gave a look.....and low and behold right there, though not the first name or the first page, was a signature, P. McCartney with 98 right below it (yes, it was his, no doubt about it.) then immediately next to it was (the photographer's mate!).

The following names were also in the guest book:
1)-John & Jodi Eastman
2)-**another Eastman, but the writing was to hard to make out the first name.
3)-Lin- YOUR # 1- Love YOU L.H.M forever!!
4) Elizabeth Freund-Brooklyn, NY
5) and then there was one that could have been Mary's, but it was really hard to make out McCartney if it was her's- though the Mary was clear.
6) P. McCartney 98
 (the photographer's mate!)

A hand full of other names were there but I couldn't make them out to say ......some of those had little remarks next to the names, one name had --Brilliant lady, Brilliant Photos!! after the name.......but I swear it was illegible beyond the brilliant part and I was looking at it with the Today show person, so we were both trying to make it out.

Well, that was the most Paul related thing, the photos were great but I was denied permission to take any pictures of them.

I spent sometime looking around and after doing so I then walked into a room where this lady was and asked if I could speak with someone, introducing myself and where I was from. Turns out this lady is Bonni Benrubi. I told her where and what I was doing. She asked what Macca-L was and I explained. She seemed like she was puzzled by what I was talking about but then smiled. The Today Show  crew was filming a piece and Bonni said no to talking about it on camera.

There were 38 photos in all, broken up into these catergories:

Platinum Prints:11. These are b/w landscapes, some animal in far distant view

Photogravure Prints: 9. These are b/w, includes a rose photo titled-McCartney rose glass ll, taken in 93

Silver-bromide Prints: 8. These photos contain what I believe could be Paul, one is someone's shadow from the sun, the other is Paul's hand looking over some of the  music from what I think is from the Oratorio, though not 100% sure, the music is titled-School Score.

Polaroid Transfers: 10. These are color pictures (most all of flowers, some of leaves & a bird)

Most photos were either taken in England or the US, one Brazil, one Scotland, one Portugal. The are all dated along side the title and range from 1969 to 1998.

The Polaroid Transfers are similar in style to the Flaming Pie pictures, they have that beige trim, they're on cartridge paper. Lastly, one thing I noticed was that the copyright is 1998-Estate of Linda McCartney, so these were printed after April.

Direct questions about this Site to Lynn Harvey
Direct questions about MACCA-L™ to Cathy Munro or Lynn Harvey
© 1997-2003 Lynn Harvey & MACCA-L
All Rights Reserved