Nico Koster's lost photos of Amsterdam bed-in

On 29th March 1969, press photographer Nico Koster was called by the picture editor of leading Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The message: Rush to the local Hilton hotel and get the best pictures of Beatle John Lennon and his fiancée Yoko Ono in bed. They're throwing a press conference and you should be there already.

That's how it began.

On their honeymoon from Gibraltar via Paris to Amsterdam.

Their Rolls Royce stopped in front of the Hilton when Nico arrived on his bike.

Amsterdam, 40 years ago, full of flower power. Love-city, like San Francisco. But elsewhere in the world raged an unstoppable war and Lennon and Ono had decided to use their honeymoon to fight the politicians and demonstrate for peace.

Their idea was simple: If everybody stays in bed for a week there are no soldiers and the Vietnam war is over.

Once arrived at the Hilton hotel they further developed their ideas and staged a press conference. In their room and not around the table, but in pyamas in bed. Windows and walls of Room 902 had been decorated with posters and banners. Make Love, Grow Your Hair and Peace Not War. The photographers and television crews understood the uniqueness of the protest action and got their images of the event out to the front pages of every newspaper and magazine. A world class action. Internet didnt exist yet but with television, radio and print the message of Lennon and Ono came across solidly.

[John and Yoko by Nico Koster]

There was a click between John Lennon and Nico Koster, who got invited to return the next day to shoot more photos. He did and came home with a series of unique images of the newly wed couple in bed playing gitar, having breakfast, laughing, crying, drawing, on the phone with friends, and watching tv. Later on the negatives got lost and only 40 years later they were found when Nicole, the photographers daughter, found an envelope with her baby pictures. In the same envelope were also the lost John Lennon-Yoko Ono negatives.

Numbered in limited edition and each picture handsigned by photographer Nico Koster 24 photographs printed from the original negative, are offered for sale on Ebay. These are the same pictures on show in art exhibitions around the world and at the Amsterdam gallery Moderne, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 44, 1017 DG Amsterdam. The gallery also published the book, Room 902, John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Amsterdam.

See johnlennonhilton.com for more details.

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