By Yoko Ono

When John and I decided to make the album Double Fantasy, breaking a five-year silence, we wondered whom we should ask to take the photographs. As the two of us thought about it, suddenly the face of Kishin Shinoyama came to mind.

I said, “For once, I’d really like to have a Japanese photographer.” John quickly agreed, saying, “Right, that sounds good.” I never expected that “for once would turn out to be the last album john and I made together, and that “for once” would live on forever.

It was a job coveted by photographers all over the world, and I truly feel that Kishin Shinoyama was destined to be the one to take those photos. And that’s what led to the Double Fantasy photos being seen by people around the globe.

Kishin Shinoyama was so nonchalant when he took our photographs, and yet he was concentrating on every shot, so that when we saw the finished photos, there wasn’t a single one that I didn’t like. His work is truly excellent.

Y.O., NYC, 2014