Whether at the height of their success or the decades that followed, there was always a camera on the Beatles. Later this year at the newly refurbished National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, the roles will reverse as a new show presents a suite of previously unseen photographs taken by Paul McCartney during the apex of his career.
Always equipped with a camera himself, the show will present over 200 photographs from McCartney’s archives taken between December 1963 and February 1964 — snapshots of the band while performing and staying at hotels, to impromptu mirror shots, that in a way, distill their celebrity and are shown like any other self-portrait taken by the average joe.
“The photographs taken in this period captured the very moment that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were propelled from being the most popular band in Britain to an international cultural phenomenon, from gigs in Liverpool and London to performing on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York to a television audience of 73 million people,” said NPG director, Nicholas Cullinan in a statement.
“At a time when so many camera lenses were on the band, these photographs will share fresh insight into their experiences, all through the eyes of Sir Paul McCartney,” Cullinan added.
The newly refurbished NPG will feature a new entrance, additional learning studios and the reopening of the East Wing as the Weston Wing, amongst other highlights. Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm will go on view at NPG London from June 28 to October 1.
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