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Naked Model Kemp Muhl And Sean Lennon Shoot Iconic Stones Cover

by peder.sande | September 3, 2009 at 08:51 am

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Naked model Kemp Muhl and Sean Lennon have recreated John Lennon and Yoko Ono's iconic photo for Rolling Stones. It is captured with Sean Lennon clothed playing the role of Yoko Ono and his girlfriend Kemp Muhl naked clinging to Sean Lennon.

The original photograph was taken by Annie Leibovitz immediately prior to John Lennon being shot. The recreation was shot by Terry Richardson for Purple Magazine.

Yoko Ono has publicly disapproved of the photo, claiming imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery.

"We need more originals, not copies", stated Ono. "Will someone else do Campbell Soup Cans? I think not."

"This", holding up the copy of the photo, is like me in my slender older age sitting beside a spinning wheel like Mahatma Gandhi in the famous 1946 photo. It would be a farce, a bad copy. Such as this photo here. This, this is a spoof!"

The below pic, snapped by Terry Richardson, was taken for the fall issue of Purple magazine.

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Medium (not verified)

at 10:02 on September 3rd, 2009

This makes no sense.... "Sean Lennon clothed playing the role of Yoko Ono and his girlfriend Kemp Muhl naked clinging to Sean Lennon. "Sean is a man, in this picture, the man is naked. Kemp is a woman, in that photo the woman is clothed.Did I miss something?

peder.sande

at 10:41 on September 3rd, 2009

The photo is of the original Rolling Stones Cover. If you click the link to the huffington post you will be able to see the remake by Purple: in Purple the nudity is reversed.

Thanks for the inquiry!

dovetail (not verified)

at 04:46 on September 8th, 2009

I am somehow very disappointed in Sean having chosen to recreate his parents' famous photo in this manner. I'm not sure what he was aiming for here, but this has none of the magic or the meaning of the original picture. In the original, there was an air of vulnerability...John showing us how much he relied on Yoko...which, at the time, was a remarkable statement to be making, given how women were still viewed then, as being subserviant to their male partners. Not only that, but it was a statement about race, too, showing that people of all nationalities should be viewed as equal. I'm not sure what this particular photo is showing other than Sean has a really hot girlfriend. And hey, if that's the message they wanted to send out to people, that's completely cool with me, but why did they have to cheapen an iconic image in order to do so? This makes me sad.

Kate Roache (not verified)

at 20:54 on October 3rd, 2009

This article makes no since. This is simply a recreation done by Elizabeth Russell with ME Kate Roache and Cobus Swanepoel. Not shot for a magazine,,,,but for a school project! This website is a sham.