Annie Leibovitz was assigned to photograph John and Yoko for the Rolling Stone magazine.
She attempted to photograph John alone, but he insisted that Yoko be part of it as well. Annie, inspired by the album cover of Double Fantasy, tried to recreate something similar to it; she imagined the two would pose together nude.
Yoko would only agree to take her top off, but nothing more, so disappointed, Annie asked her to leave it on. However, John disrobed, curled up beside and wrapped himself around the fully clothed Yoko. Instantly, Annie used her camera and captured the moment forever.“You captured our relationship exactly.”
-John Lennon
On John and Yoko’s way back home from the photo shoot, just several hours later, John was assassinated outside the Dakota.
The day was December 8, 1980.
Within the same few hours that such an influential, outspoken man evinced to the world his intimate bond with his wife, he was shot dead by a man he never really knew.
And - yet - that cruel irony further etches the power of a single moment where an onlooker can truly believe that love is all one needs.