Eyes of the Storm: Paul McCartney’s treasure trove of lost photographs
One of the pictures the Eyes of the Storm exhibition and book: John Lennon and George Harrison, Paris. 1964. Picture: Paul McCartney
It was during he lockdown of 2020 that a remarkable discovery was made in Paul McCartney’s office. A treasure trove of almost 1,000 unseen photographs taken by McCartney on a 35mm Pentax camera that had caught his bandmates’ reactions to Beatlemania, the Fab Four’s experiences together in cities such as Miami, as well as candid images of those closest to them.
In a market flooded with Beatles tomes, 1964: Eyes of the Storm is one of the most valuable insights into the cultural shift the group spearheaded at the start of the 1960s. The publication of the book coincides with McCartney’s 81st birthday. In the foreword, he explains, “Here was my record of our first huge trip, a photographic journal of The Beatles in six cities beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris (where John and I had been ordinary hitchhikers three years before), and then what we regarded as the big time, our first visit as a group to America.” The book includes an essay by Rosie Broadley, 20th Century Collections senior curator at the National Portrait Gallery, the London venue also hosting an exhibition of the photographs.
