David Michael Spindel is an American photographer. He began his professional career in 1964 working with still-life objects
and eventually broadened his horizons by doing portraits. Spindel also incorporates baseball memorabilia in collage form in some of his work. He is probably best known for photographing John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

 and Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono

is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...

 during Lennon's last recording sessions for Double Fantasy

Double Fantasy

Double Fantasy is an album released by John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, in 1980. Though initially poorly received, the album is notable for its association with Lennon's murder three weeks after its release, whereupon it become a worldwide commercial success, and went on to win the 1981 Album...

 in 1980.

Biography

Spindel grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester Institute of Technology

The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...

 in 1964 (studying under such photographers as Minor White

Minor White

Minor Martin White was an American photographer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.White earned a degree in botany with a minor in English from the University of Minnesota in 1933. His first creative efforts were in poetry, as he took five years thereafter to complete a sequence of 100 sonnets while...

, professor Leslie Stroebel, Richard D. Zakia, Ralph Hattersley and Robert Bagby). He worked as a photo assistant for 6 years until his employer at that time, Tosh Matsumoto, encouraged him to open his own studio.

Throughout his commercial career, Spindel was featured in major newspapers, magazines and art publications. Television shows in the U.S. and abroad have featured segments on his approach to photography.

After 28 years in commercial advertising, Spindel began creating an interactive body of work called "Rebuses." Webster’s dictionary defines a rebus

Rebus

A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...

 as representation of words or phrases by means of pictures or objects whose names resemble those words or phrases; a form of riddle composed of such pictures.

Spindel's rebuses have been quoted as being "unexpectedly different and more fun than finding one of Hirshfeld’s Ninas". Ranging in subjects from all-time favorite celebrities to frequently used everyday expressions, Spindel's rebuses are an outpouring of his inexhaustible sense of humor.

Notable fans and collectors of Spindel's work include: Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Marty Allen

Marty Allen

Marty Allen may refer to:*Marty Allen , American actor and comedian*Martin Allen , former head of Computervision*"Marty Allen" a former disc jockey at WCZX Radio in Poughkeepsie, NY...

, Stiller and Meara

Stiller and Meara

Stiller and Meara were a husband and wife comedy duo popular in the 1960s and 1970s. They made frequent appearances on television variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show....

, Ann Jackson

Anne Jackson

Anne Jackson is an American actress of television, stage, and screen.-Life and career:Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor...

, Eli Wallach

Eli Wallach

Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

, Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...

, Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...

, Lou Jacobi

Lou Jacobi

Louis Harold "Lou" Jacobi was a Canadian character actor.-Life and career:Jacobi was born Louis Harold Jacobovitch in Toronto, Ontario to Joseph and Fay Jacobivitch...

, Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal

William Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes...

 and Dave Winfield

Dave Winfield

David Mark Winfield is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. He is currently Executive Vice President/Senior Advisor of the San Diego Padres and an analyst for the ESPN program Baseball Tonight...

. Regis Philbin

Regis Philbin

Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...

 said, “David is a little eccentric but you have to put up with it when someone is a genius”. Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

 once said, “David’s art is wondrous”. Joe DiMaggio

Joe DiMaggio

Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...

 greatly admired Spindel’s talent and posed for a portrait with his own personal memorabilia.

In 1992, Abbeville Press released The Bronx Bombers and The Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

, the first two titles in the award winning, eight-volume Major League Memories series. Each book chronicles a major league baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 team’s history, in scrapbook form, from inception to present day.

Spindel is also known for donating his photographs to charitable organizations. He has raised funds for the Leukemia Society of America, The Mid Hudson Children’s Museum, A.L.S., Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), Lupus, The Heart Fund, Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former American Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder, and manager. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...

’s and Phil Rizzuto

Phil Rizzuto

Philip Francis Rizzuto , nicknamed "The Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...

’s favorite charities (Handicapped Boy Scouts of Southern NJ and St. Joseph’s School for the Blind) and numerous family shelters.

Spindel's original photographs are featured at The National Baseball Hall of Fame.