About This Stamp
Linda McCartney’s multifaceted career saw her take turns as a musician, animal rights activist, and cookbook author. But she first became known for her photographs.
Art director Derry Noyes says that before working on this stamp issuance, she was mostly familiar with McCartney’s portraits. But working on this project helped her gain a new appreciation for McCartney’s varied talents as a photographer.
“She clearly had a discerning, sophisticated eye,” Noyes says. “Her photographs are really very interesting, thoughtful observations of daily life. The compositions are unusual, and her attention to detail is beautiful.”
Noyes worked with the McCartney team to narrow down the photographs and described the process as “seamless.” They settled on four still lifes and a horse, chosen to reflect McCartney’s love of animals. Noyes says she is particularly a fan of the selvage photo: a black-and-white self-portrait of the photographer behind her camera.
Noyes discovered McCartney through her husband, musician Paul McCartney. But she says she was a unique talent in her own right.
“I think it’s important that we are recognizing her independently, not in the context of the Beatles,” Noyes says. “She had so very much to offer, both through her beliefs and professionally.”
With McCartney’s photography now gracing stamps, Noyes hopes people will reevaluate her life.
“I hope these stamps open up a new window into the other facets of her life and spark interest to find out more about her.”
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.