Julian Lennon

It had only been a year or so since my first ever photography exhibition in New York City, when I ran into the film-maker Mary McGuckian and discussed her upcoming film, The Price of Desire, about the life of Irish architect and designer, Eileen Gray. Mary proposed I join the team as on-set stills photographer. Little did I know at that time, how much this job would truly affect me, on so many levels…

I arrived late in Brussels, for the first day and was immediately rushed into the studio to shoot a ‘special’ of Alanis Morissette, who plays Marisa Damia, the famous French tragedienne singer of the era and also Eileen Gray’s lover. I was required to exactly recreate a well-known existing publicity image of Marisa Damia, that would be featured in the film in the coming days.

Mary and I had discussed a number of aspects to the brief. I was to capture ‘behind the scenes’ on the production, the sets themselves, the Eileen Gray furniture as it appears in the film, and last but not least the actors themselves. So when the film finally wrapped in Roquebrune Cap Martin, which is where Eileen Gray designed and built the first modernist house, I found I had 1000s of images to edit and catalogue; a task that at some points I thought would never end, but because I loved all the images so much, it was truly difficult to collate, categorize and choose amongst them.

It has taken almost a year since to finalize and edit the project… Notwithstanding my ‘day-job’ and as much as I love the charity work I do, my music projects as a singer, songwriter and producer; photography has now taken a hold of my heart. It’s become my passion in life, my love and my muse, thanks in part, to this emotionally exquisite film. I’ve loved every moment of the long hours and hard work that went into finalizing these images for Stoney Road Press, so that we can share the world of Eileen Gray’s aesthetic with a wider audience…

Julian Lennon, 2014