Imagine you’re a Beatle. After years of small, grinding successes in the Liverpool-London music scene, you're riding a wave of international Beatlemania: screaming girls, luxe hotels, entourages, motorcades, and hundreds of photojournalists.

You’re in the eye of a storm—willingly, but a storm nonetheless. A new gorgeously-produced and hung photography exhibit Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm shows us what it looked like from the inside as (now Sir) Paul McCartney was looking outward with his own camera.

From about December 1963 through February 1964, McCartney used his Asahi Pentax 35 mm camera  to photograph the people, events, and context of which the Beatles were the center. However, until London’s National Portrait Gallery produced this exhibition, the thousand-or-so photos he made during their Liverpool-to-Miami tour lay fallow in his archives.

The model of Pentax McCartney used. John Rudoff

McCartney has had a lifelong relation to photography—his parents were both early adopters of the Kodak Brownie, and his first wife, Linda McCartney, was a professional photographer—and he was involved with selection and curation of the exhibit. The show unfolds chronologically, beginning with Liverpool, moving to London, capturing backstage, green-room, or hotel images of the (so-young!) Beatles, their girlfriends, and others in the entourage. Even the earliest photos in the series show McCartney’s visual awareness of composition, timing, and especially focus and depth of field. 

As the tour and the maelstrom of Beatlemania intensifies, so does McCartney’s outward orientation. By the time the Beatles reach Paris, McCartney's lens fixes less on his tour partners and more on the planned photo-shoots, incessant ironic humor, and jazz and cabaret musicians of the era. But New York City and Washington, DC are the heart of McCartney’s vision in this exhibit. We see the frenzied crowds, photographers’ pursuits, and running fans (think Hard Day’s Night). The wistful isolation of hotel and studio is also there, but text and photo remind us that the Beatles anticipated a degree of the solitude that accompanies fame.

We also see McCartney’s photographic interests outside the tour. Railway workers watch the express train pass; the marquee of a nude arthouse advertises Christine Keeler; police guard the four lads and control crowds. A singular photo of a cop on a Harley motorcycle, carrying a revolver and ammo, suggests the era's tone—this was only two months after JFK’s assassination, and the Brits were surprised by armed Americans. 

Museumgoers consider McCartney's photo. John Rudoff

In Miami, in February, McCartney discovers sun, blue skies, and Kodachrome. The themes return largely to the London tour’s sealed existence. But here too he turns to Miami Vice-style swimming pools, boats, and sunsets. 

Eyes of the Storm delivers on its title. We see McCartney's perspective from the center of the first Beatles tour. Found within the snapshots, is the ultimate insider’s view of a singular cultural event. An excellent, though expensive ($75), coffee-table book accompanies the exhibit and includes insightful essays by both McCartney and Harvard historian Jill Lepore. 

Portland Art Museum’s presentation is only the second stop for the show in the US, thus far, and was arranged by Dr. Julia Dolan, PAM’s photography curator. While the exhibit is augmented with QR codes that lead the tech savvy to associated video clips and archival material, Dolan will offer a brief lecture about the show on October 3. 


Paul McCartney: Photographs 1963-1964: Eyes Of The Storm shows at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, through Jan 19, 2025, tickets here, all ages.