The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, will host the exhibition Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, which features 250 of Paul McCartney‘s photographs from the mid-60s in a curated collection for the first time. The exhibition will run from December 5, 2023, to April 7, 2024.
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The collection is pulled from McCartney’s private archive of photos and focuses on the time between November 1963 and February 1964. Beatlemania was just heating up, and McCartney captured photos of himself and his bandmates, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, on his Pentax camera as the group began to find worldwide acclaim.
“Looking at these photos now, decades after they were taken, I find there’s a sort of innocence about them,” McCartney said in a statement to the museum. “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.”
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In the innocence and camaraderie of the photos, McCartney captured the Beatles’ friendship, work ethic, and unique personalities, as well as the art and visual aesthetic of the time. The collection is organized chronologically, leading to a study of Beatlemania and the culmination of the band’s first trip to America. As the museum states, many of the photographs existed only as negatives for over 60 years before now.
The exhibition was held initially at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and The Chrysler Museum of Art will be the first venue in the U.S. to host the collection.
“What struck me about these images, beyond their obvious historical value, was McCartney’s sensitivity to his subjects,” Erik Neil (Macon) and Joan Brock (Director) of the Chrysler Museum of Art, said in a statement. “The empathy that is at the center of his music is equally evident in his photographs.”
McCartney’s curator and archivist Sarah Brown collaborated with Lloyd DeWitt, The Chrysler Museum’s Senior Curator, on the installation of the exhibition, while the collection was initially chosen by Rosie Broadley of the National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Whittaker/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
