Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm

Though it was Beatles legend Paul McCartney’s former wife, Linda McCartney, who was the acclaimed photographer in that marriage, a recently rediscovered cache of photos shot during The Beatles’ rise to fame demonstrates that Sir Paul himself was a talented cameraman. This exhibition, comprising over 250 of these archive images, documents life from the insider perspective of one of the four members of this band that shook the world. To this day, this band is still especially loved in Japan. Following runs at London’s National Portrait Gallery and NYC’s Brooklyn Museum, the show touches down at this sky-high Roppongi venue.

Video clips and archival materials set the scene for these photos shot by McCartney over three-month spanning late 1963 and early 1964: a key period in The Beatles’ career, as they developed from a phenomenon in Britain into a global success that incited ‘Beatlemania’ wherever they travelled. The candidness of the all-monochrome images, in which fellow band members John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr loom large, evokes the feeling of a family album full of once-in-a-lifetime memories.