The BEATLES Epoch

The era of the 1960s is inevitably associated with the name of the legendary quartet, which has long become its symbol. Exhibition of photos by Astrid Kirchherr “The BEATLES” opened in Kyiv. She was the personal photographer and a friend of the young musicians at that time and took photos of the band with her Rolleicord camera at the beginning of their music career.

Those photos of the little-known band The Beatles were preserved for more than 50 years. Fifty of those shots, including those that haven’t been exhibited before, were presented at the exhibition. The 74-year-old Kirchherr spent three days in Kyiv and visitors of the exhibition had a chance to meet her and talk to her in person.

German photographer shared interesting facts about the life of famous Liverpool band from her personal experience: “my closest friends were Stuart Sutcliffe and George Harrison, who are, unfortunately, not with us anymore… The Beatles impressed me with their determination and dedication, they as if radiated love and thus around them there was always very friendly atmosphere.” Kirchherr is considered to be the inventor of unusual hairstyles The Beatles had, but she says that at that time all German young men had their hair like that. Sutcliffe began to imitate them and Kirchherr cut hair the same way for all of them: “This was the time when we did not have money for hairdressers, thus this was normal.” Kirchherr says that at that time she wanted to take photos of the faces boys had – faces that outlined individuality of each one of them.

The exhibition is organized by the Center of Contemporary Art “M17” and Ginzburg Fine Arts. Mark Ginzburg, representing the latter, told us about the origin of the project: “I love The Beatles like all people of my generation. Once I learned about the auction, where 2,500 photographs by Kirchherr, which haven’t been published anywhere yet, were to be sold as 500 lots. I thought that it would be sad if so many epochal photos would be scattered all over the world. I decided to buy them before the action would take place, but the organizers said no to that. Then I had to get personally in touch with Kirchherr and she agreed to cooperate. The auction was cancelled. I remember there was even a scandal because someone said that it was the wife of Paul McCartney who bought all the photos, but turned out it wasn’t her. Photos made by Kirchherr are the evidence of the era that has passed, it is important to preserve them for people who respect the creative work of The Beatles, so that they could enjoy the photos and the name of Astrid Kirchherr would be well-known.” By the way, 20 of the 50 photographs presented at the exhibition show Liverpool of the 1960s – this is the environment where the band, that made history, originated and created their music through the eyes of Kirchherr.”