Includes early Beatles photographs that have not been seen for decades. Richly illustrated with images of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe, etc... Includes interviews with Klaus Vormann and Kirchherr herself, as well as chapters by acclaimed music critics such as Jon Savage and Michael Bracewell.
Matthew H. Clough is Director of the Victoria Gallery and Museum Colin Fallows is Professor of Sound and Visual Arts at Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores University
In the early 1960s the Beatles posed for hours for the German
photographer Astrid Kirchherr, even before the roster of four band
members was finalized. She met them when they first played in her
native Hamburg and encouraged them to imitate her bowl-cut hair and
collarless jackets. She was briefly engaged to the bass player
Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1962, at 21.
She later tried to branch out as a photojournalist, but potential
clients always asked, “Where are the Beatles pictures?” This spring
Ms. Kirchherr, 73, decided to shed the baggage. Early this fall
Guernsey’s auction house in New York will offer about 800 of her
negatives and prints. Although she says she has remained friends
with the surviving Beatles, she cannot wait to stop being asked
about them, and the past in general. “I must tell you the truth,
I’m absolutely fed up with it all,” she said in a recent phone
interview. She added, “I’ve got to take care of my age.” Buyers at
the auction will receive rights to reprint and publish the photos
“as they see fit,” Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s, said.
Ms. Kirchherr, despite her jadedness, has come back into the
limelight in the last year. Arne Bellstorf, a German comics artist,
wrote and illustrated “Baby’s in Black: The Story of Astrid
Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe” (published by Reprodukt). A
retrospective of her work closed in January at the Victoria Gallery
& Museum in Liverpool, and Liverpool University Press (distributed
by University of Chicago Press) has issued a Kirchherr monograph.
In July the new Museum of Liverpool will open with a gallery
devoted to Beatles memorabilia. It will display a jacket that the
drummer Pete Best wore during Hamburg stints before he was replaced
by Ringo Starr, and Sutcliffe’s black leather wallet, with white
hearts painted on the corners and an inscribed love note from Ms.
Kirchherr.
*The New York Times*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |