TakeGreatPictures.com has just debuted one of the last candid portraits of John Lennon, taken in 1980 by photographer Milton Heiberg. The portrait is of great interest to John Lennon fans and Beatles fans, as it has never before been shown publicly.

Heiberg, a renowned nature photographer and book author, took the sepia-toned shot when he saw Lennon during intermission at a performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at New York City's Minskoff Theater that January.

Mr. Heiberg recalls:

"I am not a paparazzi, and probably never will be. But I said Oh, what the heck, mustered my nerve and got off two frames before I got polite and asked permission. He was deep in heated conversation with Robert Rauschenberg, who designed the sets for the ballet performance. Neither objected to my photography, but politely declined to pose.

I went back into the theater wondering how much intensifier I would need to get a decent negative from this way underexposed tri-x film. As it turned out, I managed to get a good candid and serious mood shot of a person whom I consider to be the greatest and most influential musician of our time."

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Published June 24, 2008