Click on Image
About the Album Cover
The image you see above is an edited version of the photo that was used for the cover of the 1969 rock album Abbey Road, by the Beatles.
The image above was edited in a Microsoft Digital Image Editor, where the four members of the Beatles were removed from the photo. The Beatles will magically reappear when you “click” on the image, either on a laptop, or on a mobile device!
The image above is a composite of the original image used for the album cover (taken by Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan) and this mystery image’s white Volkswagen (along with some road and curb details) that was taken by an unknown author.
The mystery image contains many of the same vehicles, in their same locations, as are seen on the original image used for the album cover. [The linked-to mystery image can also be seen below, on the right (or on the bottom, on smaller screens), with the album-cover image on the left (or top).] Notice the guy dressed in white, who can be seen in both images on the left sidewalk, who has barely moved between the taking of the photos below—while several vehicles have come and gone!
It can be presumed that the mystery image was taken by Iain Macmillan himself (possibly using a different camera) sometime during the photo session that produced the image that was used for the album cover. According to this snapgalleries.com article, there were only six photos taken by Iain Macmillan that day at the zebra crossing. If you look closely, the mystery image appears to have been 'photoshopped' in some fashion in the road area right above the zebra crossing, to remove some unwanted content. [The online source for the latter photo is no longer available.]
The Abbey Road album cover photo was taken 52 years ago (from the year 2022) on Friday morning, August 8, 1969, from a ladder at this approximate spot in the middle of Abbey Road (as seen on the Google map), with the camera pointing northwest. The 50th anniversary of the taking of the album cover photo was celebrated on Thursday, August 8, 2019.
Abbey Road is an approximate 30-minute drive northwest from central London, England. Here is a web cam looking southeast towards the Abbey Road zebra crossing. [You will have to scroll down the page a bit to see the web cam. Click the red “Live” button that you will see on the right for a “live feed” to appear.]
On the left side of image above (and on its “clicked” counterpart)—up the sidewalk a bit—are two entrances to the EMI Recording Studios. EMI Recording Studios was renamed Abbey Road Studios in 1970. Abbey Road Studios has the world’s largest “purpose-built” recording studio, and won the Music Producers Guild’s 2018 Studio of the Year award.