Julian Lennon's "Reminiscence" at Fremin

Rico Suave, the signature image in “Reminiscence,” Julian Lennon’s just-opened photo exhibition at Fremin Gallery, centers on a handsomely detailed 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible parked arrogantly on a rough Cuban dirt road. A figure is reclining on its hood, hands clasped behind his head in a posture of absolute confidence and contentment.

The formal elements of the photograph are in perfect harmony: the diagonal positioning of the car creates dynamic tension against the horizontal cloud formations, while the vertical palm tree anchors the left side of the frame. Lennon employs dramatic contrast to highlight the car's chrome detailing against its dark body, making the vintage vehicle pop from its surroundings with almost sculptural dimensionality. The person's position—face tilted skyward rather than forward—suggests looking up to possibility rather than straight ahead to destination.

What elevates this from documentary to art is the deliberate tension between movement and stillness. The car appears momentarily paused on its journey, creating a suspended moment in time. The figure's relaxed posture suggests not just physical rest but mental reflection—a person fully present in their experience yet simultaneously lost in thought.

Julian Lennon at the opening of his photo show, “Reminiscence,” at Fremin Gallery March 6

The Cuban setting provides critical historical context. These American cars, frozen in time by the trade embargo that has been in place since the Kennedy administration, embody a complicated political history while serving as tangible connections to the past. The photograph captures this vehicle not as a museum piece but as a living artifact still integrated into daily life.

The high-contrast black-and-white treatment removes the distraction of color, allowing the viewer to focus on form, light, and shadow. It also deliberately evokes an earlier photographic era, creating another layer of nostalgic distance.

In this and the other photographs that make up “Reminiscence,” Lennon demonstrates his measured eye behind the lens, capturing Cuban cars, beautiful people, lonely landscapes, even a few guitars in stark black-and-white photographs that serve at once as archival documents and artistic statements.

A woman considers the word Rico Suave at Fremin Gallery,

Known primarily for his musical legacy (yes, he's John's son, moving on) and environmental activism, Lennon has quietly built a parallel career as a thoughtful photographer whose work slides effortlessly between commercial polish and raw documentation. 

While the Cuban automotive studies form the exhibition's backbone, "Reminiscence" expands beyond vehicular subjects. The show includes Lennon's intimate portraits, notably a striking close-up profile of a Charlene Whittstock’s face, her features captured in luminous detail—perfect skin, defined lashes, and subtle highlights creating a study in refined elegance. Another standout portrait depicts Bono, wearing his distinctive wraparound sunglasses in what appears to be a recording studio, surrounded by audio equipment and rack-mounted gear, poised in concentration and oozing creative focus.

The exhibition's landscape section features ethereal images of Joshua Tree National Park, where Lennon documents aircraft contrails crisscrossing the desert sky. These compositions—white lines etched across the firmament above yucca plants and distant mountains—reflect on human transience against nature's permanence, a recurring theme in Lennon's environmental work.

Julain Lennon’s photography drew a packed house at Fremin.

Lennon's history as a photographer began in the early 2000s, though his first major exhibition didn't materialize until 2010's "Timeless" collection featuring celebrity portraits and landscape photography. His 2013 documentary-style series "Horizon" explored humanitarian issues in Kenya and Ethiopia, cementing his reputation for combining aesthetic concerns with social consciousness.

Between photographic projects, Lennon has maintained his musical career, releasing his seventh studio album "Jude" in 2022 – his first in eleven years. The album title deliberately acknowledged his Beatles heritage after decades of maintaining professional distance from his father's legacy.

His humanitarian efforts remain equally active through The White Feather Foundation, which he founded in 2007 to address environmental and humanitarian causes. The foundation's name references a promise from his father that if he passed away, he would send Julian a white feather as a sign.

Lennon's Cuba series builds on a rich tradition of photographers documenting the island's unique automotive landscape. From Andrew Moore's "Inside Havana" to Piotr Degler's "Carros de Cuba," the subject has attracted numerous image-makers drawn to these rolling sculptures. What distinguishes Lennon's approach is his resistance to romanticizing poverty or treating Cuba as an Instagram backdrop.

The exhibition arrives at an interesting inflection point in US-Cuba relations. While travel restrictions have loosened somewhat since 2014, the decades-long economic embargo remains largely intact, continuing the isolation that created Cuba's distinctive car culture in the first place.

Critic Robert Hughes once wrote, "The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." Lennon's work displays that productive uncertainty, resulting in images that ask questions rather than make declarations. His diverse portfolio examines preservation versus progress, isolation versus connection, and the ways objects absorb and reflect cultural identity.

"Reminiscence" runs March 6-April 6 at Fremin Gallery, 520 West 23rd Street, Chelsea. The exhibition coincides with the release of a limited-edition book featuring expanded selections from Lennon's portfolio, with proceeds supporting automotive preservation efforts in Havana.