At the National Portrait Gallery, the Never-Before-Seen Photos of Paul McCartney

How was it being one of the Beatles at the start of “Beatlemania”? The photos taken by Paul McCartney between December 1963 and February 1964 gives us an idea, bearing extraordinary witness to the phenomenon from the inside. They were the years when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr made up the most popular band in Great Britain, part of an international cultural phenomenon. At the centre of an unprecedented exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, never-before-seen images offer a unique and personal perspective on the meaning of being a “Beatle” in those years, transmitting the emotions of playing on the stages of Liverpool or in front of 73-million Americans during The Ed Sullivan Show. In a moment of history during which droves of photo lenses were pointed at the band, that of Paul McCartney was certainly the one which, more than any other, offered the most authentic view of this band which made cultural history during one of its most overwhelming chapters. With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the exhibition Paul McCartney, Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm offers nothing less than all this.