Growing up in Beijing in the ’80s and the ’90s, the Beatles was a big name even though they never performed in mainland China. My high school deskmate was a teenage boy who was fascinated by the Beatles and listened to their songs all the time on his Sony Walkman CD player.
I remember him handing over the headphone to me and introduced the first Beatles song I ever heard, “Yesterday.” The Beatles’ significant influence on music and culture over greater China began in Hong Kong on June 9, 1964, when they appeared at the Princess Theatre in Kowloon. The date is so important that it is widely regarded as the start of English language rock ’n’ roll in Hong Kong, which ultimately inspired the birth of Cantonese pop and eventually Chinese pop.
“The Eyes of the Storm” showcases the photographs captured by Paul McCartney from December 1963 through February 1964 of the Beatles while the band performed from England to the United States. An exhibition of McCartney’s photographs runs through July 6 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
A turning point was their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, when the Beatles were watched by 70 million Americans on TV and turned them into a global phenomenon. McCartney documented the Beatles’ historical journey to an international prominence via his Pentax 35mm single-lens reflex camera and shot approximately 1,000 photos of which 250 were selected for this exhibition.
McCartney was both the eyes behind the lens and a subject matter in front of the lens on a journey of the Beatles’ dazzling ascent to global stardom. He said, “Everywhere I went I just took pictures. … I was definitely looking for interesting shots, angles, lighting, compositions.”
While behind the lens,
McCartney captured intimate and personal images of his Beatles bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, their band manager Brian Esptein, crew members, friends and fellow performers in their very relaxed and candid state behind the scenes.
Also captured were historical moments of massive fans frantically awaiting their
arrivals, along with everyday people such as policemen on streets and service people at hotels and airports, the
connection to whom McCartney credits his humble roots with an upbringing from
a working-class family in
Liverpool.
He also captured well established professional photographers influenced by French new wave cinema, documentary filmmaking and photojournalism – Harry Benson, Dezo Hoffman and Robert Freeman, traveling with the Beatles and shooting the band’s every move, as well as Astrid Kirchherr, a German photographer credited for influencing the Beatles’ “mop-top” hairstyle adoption, shooting the band at the set of “A Hard Day’s Night,” the Beatles’ 1964 musical comedy recognized as one of the most influential of all music films.
In front of the camera lens as a subject matter of Beatlemania, a photo stands out of McCartney holding his daughter Mary with wife Linda standing behind, looking through the lens of a camera held in her hands. This photo is uniquely precious, capturing three photographers in one frame – Linda, the first woman to have her photograph featured on the Rolling Stone Magazine cover, and Mary, a future
photographer and documentary filmmaker.
McCartney switched from black and white to color film once the Beatles arrived in Miami for a second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 16, 1964. This time around they relaxed and had great fun like four big boys on vacation. Photographs of the Beatles swimming in the ocean, by the swimming pool, on a fishing boat and even a trip to the drive-in movie depicted the innocent and playful side of the young men that were otherwise iconic superstars on stage.
The Beatles captured America’s heart in February 1964. It is especially nostalgic that after nearly 60 years since their final concert at Candlestick Park on Aug. 29, 1966, Beatlemania returns to San Francisco with the exhibition of “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of Storm,” allowing many an opportunity to revisit the history of an extraordinary journey.
The exhibition is organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London and presented exclusively in California at the de Young Museum. For more information, visit famsf.org/exhibitions/paul-mccartney-photographs.
Duanni Hurd is a Los Altos resident who writes about arts and culture. You can find her on Instagram at @duannihurd9.
