LONDON - Many of the most memorable photographs ever taken of the Beatles form the basis of this historic new exhibition which coincides with the first major retrospective devoted to Angus McBean (1904-1990), the acclaimed British portrait photographer who took the defining images of the group at the start and end of their careers as The Beatles.  On exhibit until 22 October, 2006.

McBean first photographed the group in 1963 for the cover of their Please Please Me album and six years later, posed on the same Balcony at EMI house in Manchester Square, for the proposed Get Back album.  These two images, which finally appeared on the Red and Blue albums, are shown in the context of classic, rare and unseen images by famous photographers who helped form the group’s public image.

Sir Paul McCartney has generously contributed his recollections of this period to the Angus McBean catalogue and has helped select and lend ten of Linda McCartney’s most defining images of the group, ranging from shots taken in the recording studio to others at the launch of the Sgt Pepper album and several rarely exhibited studies in color. 

From 1963, Michael Ward’s previously unseen pictures of the group in Liverpool are shown, as well a rare photograph of one of their last appearances at the Cavern Club.  And while it was Hoffmann who took the memorable early ‘leaping shots’ of the group, new research has revealed that the unaccredited photographer of the iconic Twist and Shout EP was in fact Fiona Adams.  Her print and contact sheet are exhibited here for the first time.

Succeeding Hoffmann as their semi-official photographer was Robert Freeman who came to prominence with his moody black and white photograph showing the group with black roll necks for their second album, With the Beatles.   This was followed swiftly by his color work for the Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, and Rubber Soul albums.

Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ enigmatic manager subsequently employed Robert Whitaker for several shoots and his controversial ‘Butcher’ cover image for the American album release Yesterday and Today appears with many of his less controversial works including the elegiac study of Lennon with his first wife Cynthia and their son Julian.

David Bailey’s images from his Box of Pin Ups (1965) and Richard Avedon’s posters from 1967 herald the Beatles in their psychedelic phase and the time of the Sgt Pepper album montage staged by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth and photographed by Michael Cooper.  Later albums covers featured here include Iain McMillan’s much copied Abbey Road images of the Beatles on the now famous pedestrian crossing.

Also included are works by three famous Harrys. First Harry Hammond, self-styled, father of pop photography, who is also famous for his photographs of Buddy Holly and Bill Hayley; then Harry Benson, the Scottish-born celebrity photographer now based in the USA, who is represented by his classic pillow-fight image of the group taken in the George V Hotel in Paris; and finally Harry Goodwin, the Manchester-based official photographer for BBC’s long-running Top of the Pops programme, who took historic images of the group at the time of their live appearance on the show in 1965. 

Capturing crucial moments in their six-year career together, Philip Townsend’s portrait of the group shows them with the Maharishi and full entourage, shortly before they set off for India in 1968.  Other less well-known but important work to be included will be pictures by Jean-Marie Perier’s for the group’s Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane single; Norman Parkinson’s classic ‘shish kebab’ image and Terry O’Neill’s equally famous image of the group performing in a backyard at the EMI studios.

These pictures and a few other surprises have been kindly lent by several collectors and leading galleries, whilst others have come from the National Portrait Gallery’s own fast growing collection.

The Beatles on the Balcony is curated by Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery together with Dave Brolan, Picture Editor for Special projects on Q and Mojo magazine.

Visit the National Portrait Gallery Website: www.npg.org.uk