In 2015, in an effort to kickstart my own creativity, and fill some of my lonely hours, I decided that I would take a new profile picture for Facebook every month, inspired by my favorite musical artists. Most of them I just took in my own apartment with a timer, but when it came time to do my tribute to the Beatles, there was really only one iconic image of John Lennon (my favorite Beatle) that came to mind. Could I really do the New York City shirt with a blank background? Did I want to use Photoshop for this? No. Especially when I had a good friend with rooftop access not terribly far from where the original image was taken.

The original photos of John Lennon were taken by Bob Gruen on August 29, 1974, at 434 East 52nd Street, when he was 33 years old.

These photos of me were taken by Terry Chu on August 22, 2015, at 535 West 52nd Street, when I was 34 years old.