ADVERTISEMENT A new exhibition at Gagosian in London will showcase Paul McCartney’s candid photographs of the Beatles during their meteoric rise in the early 1960s.
Titled “Rearview Mirror: Liverpool–London–Paris”, the show opens on 28 August and offers an unusually intimate look at the band’s early days – through the eyes of McCartney himself.
Shot between December 1963 and February 1964 on his 35mm Pentax camera, the photos chronicle the explosive moment just before the Fab Four conquered America.
The images – some single shots, others grouped as contact sheets – capture McCartney and his bandmates during a dizzying period when Beatlemania was erupting across the UK and spreading to Europe.
“Unassuming” and “unguarded” is how the gallery describes them, and it’s not hard to see why: this is the band as only one of their own could see them – backstage, between shows, and in stolen moments of quiet before the storm of global fame.
One haunting self-portrait shows McCartney reflected in a mirror in the attic room of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher’s family home, the very place he famously dreamt the melody for the song ‘Yesterday’.
Other standout scenes include behind-the-scenes snapshots at the Lewisham Odeon, Finsbury Park Astoria and the London Palladium, where the Beatles played to increasingly frenzied crowds. There’s even a set of frames capturing the tense build-up before their transatlantic flight to New York – the beginning of their global takeover.
The prints, remastered from negatives thought lost for over 50 years, are signed by McCartney and issued in a small, carefully crafted edition – each framed in a style he designed himself.
This London exhibition follows McCartney’s photography debut earlier this year at Gagosian Beverly Hills, and runs in parallel with the touring show “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm”, currently on view at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.
Whether you’re a Beatles die-hard or just curious to see a cultural storm from a new angle, “Rearview Mirror” promises an up-close look at one of the most transformative times in modern music – seen through the eyes of someone who helped shape it.
“Rearview Mirror: Liverpool–London–Paris” runs at Gagosian London (Davies Street) from 28 August-4 October 2025.
