Photographer and activist Linda McCartney will be honored by the United States Postal Service with a series of postage stamps featuring her nature and still life photography. The collection contains 20 stamps with five individual images, including photographs of sunflowers and a teapot.
The stamp collection was designed by USPS art director Derry Noyes. A first-day-of-issue ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City will celebrate the photographer and the collection on Sept. 25. They will be available for purchase at USPS branches across the country the same day.
Born Linda Eastman in 1941, McCartney was a photographer who shot some of the biggest stars of the Sixties, a passionate animal rights activist, and the wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney. In 1968, her image of a young Eric Clapton made her the first woman photographer to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Later, in 1974, she posed for the cover of Rolling Stone alongside her husband Paul.
McCartney was drawn to photography while attending college at the University of Arizona. After becoming a receptionist at Town and Country, she used an unwanted invitation to get into a Rolling Stones event to snap some shots of the band. Those images dazzled the staff and were published in a editorial spread, and set off her photographic career. In the mid-Sixties, McCartney shot rock & roll figures like Clapton, the Doors, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and many more. Her work has been exhibited across the world, including the Royal Photographic Society and the Victoria and Albert Museum in England.
She got married to McCartney in 1969, taking his name. In 1970, her photograph of a bowl of maraschino cherries appeared on the cover of his first solo album (the same photo is among the images featured on the new stamps). The couple released the album Ram, now recognized as a classic, in 1971 as Paul and Linda McCartney. Later that year, they co-founded Paul’s post-Beatles band Wings, with Linda on keyboards, and went on to release seven studio albums over the course of the decade.
She was also a prominent figure in the animal rights and vegetarianism movements. McCartney died in 1998 from breast cancer. She was 56.
