'Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ opens at National Portrait Gallery
This June sees London’s National Portrait Gallery reopen to visitors as part of the major exhibition: ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’. Launching 28 June and running until 1 October 2023, the exhibition displays more than 250 photographs from Paul McCartney’s personal archive – offering a deeply personal insight into the Beatlemania era. Stella attended the launch event, alongside friends and family including Mary McCartney, Nancy Shevell, Olivia Harrison, Julian Lennon, Dave Grohl and more.
The exhibition shines a light on portraits shot by McCartney’s own camera between November 1963 and February 1964, capturing the period in which he, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr found fame as The Beatles. ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ is a unique lens into how the legendary band went from being the most popular act in Britain to an international cultural phenomenon.
The truth is that I have always been interested in photography, from the time I was very young, when our family owned a little box camera in the 1950s. I used to love the whole process of loading a roll of Kodak film into our Brownie camera.
Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ provides a never-before-seen and incredibly personal perspective of the frenzy of Beatlemania. Through a personal archival project, McCartney documents a once-in-a-lifetime era of British cultural dominance across music, fashion and film.
Captured on McCartney’s Pentax camera are vignettes of The Beatles on their travels, portraits taken backstage in Liverpool, during recording sessions in Paris and beyond. He personally selected the photographs and shared insightful reflections and introversions about the period and images.
Looking at these photos now, decades after they were taken, I find there’s a sort of innocence about them. Everything was new to us at this point. But I like to think I wouldn’t take them any differently today. They now bring back so many stories, a flood of special memories, which is one of the many reasons I love them all, and know that they will always fire my imagination. The fact that these photographs have been taken by the National Portrait Gallery for their reopening after a lengthy renovation is humbling yet also astonishing – I’m looking forward to seeing them on the walls, 60 years on.
‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ is accompanied by a book of photographs and reflections, published on 13 June 2023 by Penguin Press in the UK and by Norton in the US.
Millions of eyes were suddenly upon us, creating a picture I will never forget for the rest of my life.
‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ is open to the public now, running until 1 October 2023.
