Amateur Photographer Magazine

 Photographer's shock at 'unseen' Beatles photos (update with pictures) - Page One: Beatles images found in attic

Wednesday 28th April 2010

Report by Chris Cheesman

Picture credit: Copyright Paul Berriff

A photographer has expressed surprise at the condition of negatives depicting his previously unseen images of The Beatles which had lain forgotten for more than 45 years.

Speaking to Amateur Photographer (AP), photographer Paul Berriff explained how he shot the images as an untrained 16-year-old while working as an editorial assistant on the Yorkshire Evening Post.

He said the 37 pictures of the Fab Four were among 850 negatives that have languished in various attics for more than four decades since the early 1960s.

The pictures show band members during unguarded moments on and off stage during a tour in 1963 and 1964.

Berriff captured the photos using a Nikon F2, a Rolleiflex and Kodak Tri-X 400 film, at venues such as the ABC Cinema in Huddersfield, the Odeon in Leeds and the Apollo in Manchester.

The North Yorkshire-based photographer said that the condition of the negatives surprised him after all this time as they had not been affected by damp, for example.

Berriff said he had not realised the importance of what he had, and that he has hundreds more unpublished pictures showing bands such as The Rolling Stones and Queen.

Berriff went on to become a BAFTA award-winning documentary filmmaker.

The photographer was talking to AP at the opening of an exhibition of the images at The Menier Gallery in London which runs until Friday.

The pictures can also be viewed on The Beatles Hidden Gallery website where they are available to buy.

MORE BEATLES PORTRAITS HERE

View AP's other Beatles photo stories HERE

All picture credits: Copyright Paul Berriff

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