John Lennon and Yoko Ono bed-in images found in Outaouais
An Outaouais man has stumbled upon negatives of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono bed-in at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969.
John Urban was searching last month for an old negative of a snow sculpture when he came across images of the famous week-long Montreal bed-in that he had never seen before.
Urban initially thought his former roommate Frank Antonsen borrowed his camera to take the shots, and then left the roll in by mistake. But Antonsen told CBC News that though he was at the bed-in as a journalist, he only brought a tape recorder — not a camera. He said it's possible the photographer who went with him, Nathan Wolkowitz, took the photos but he has since died.
"It was a 36-exposure roll," Urban said.
"I look at these and say, I'd better put them on the scanner and blow them up cause I've never seen them before."
Urban has lived in Brennan's Hill, Que., about 50 kilometres north of downtown Ottawa, for nearly 25 years.
"They've been lying there, waiting to be discovered in this box of old photos and negative," he said.
"They're all candid photos."
Searching for photographer
Urban is certain he didn't take the photos.
He said that if he can't track down the photographer, he will auction off the never-before seen photos.
"I have no idea if they have value or not," he said, adding that he would donate whatever funds raised evenly between the New Democratic Party and Amnesty International.
Urban works as a goldsmith, making wedding rings, but used to be a photographer.
"A long time ago I tried to make it as a photographer, and in the course of that I accumulated many, many, many negatives," he said.
"It's worthwhile to dig through your old belongings because you may discover something that you've forgotten about or weren't even aware of."