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The
Beatles by Robert Whitaker |
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The
Beatles by Robert Whitaker |
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1 August to 9
October 2003
at
The Mathew Street Gallery, Liverpool
Visit the Gallery website at www.lennonart.co.uk
In three short years, between 1964 and 1966, Robert Whitaker managed to compile a remarkable photographic dossier on the 20th century's most musical phenomenon. As The Beatles official photographer, Robert Whitaker had unparalleled access to the band at work and at play. That access came courtesy of a chance meeting in Australia with Brian Epstein, whom Whitaker impressed with a portrait of The Beatles manager, around whose face he superimposed peacock feathers.
On his arrival in England in August 1964, Whitaker went to work as the staff photographer at NEMS photographing the likes of Billy J. Kramer, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Cilla Black, but it was with The Beatles that he produced his most creative work. He became especially friendly with John Lennon and, in one 1965 picture, represented Lennon with a dandelion sprouting from one eye and a Narcissus, enchanted by his own reflection. In this image Whitaker reflected his own indebtedness to the surrealist, Salvador Dali.
And so it was to Surrealism that Whitaker turned again for inspiration for his most famous shot, "Somnambulant Adventure", better known to Beatles fans as "The Butcher Cover".
"I did a photograph of The Beatles covered in raw meat, dolls and false teeth...all over the world I'd watched people worshipping them like idols, like gods, four Beatles. To me they were just stock standard normal people...putting meat, dolls and false teeth with The Beatles is essentially a breakdown of what is regarded as normal. But they were only objects placed on The Beatles, rather like making a movie. I mean what you want to read into it is entirely up to you. I was trying to show that The Beatles were flesh and blood." Mr Whitaker states.
The use of unexpected props is Whitaker's trademark: one session he did with The Beatles has each of them holding a car spring, a parasol, a birch broom and an umbrella - to represent spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Having toured with The Beatles and having grown weary of their screaming fans who accompanied the band's every move, Whitaker decided to immerse himself in the art world instead, photographing Salvador Dali at his Spanish mansion several times between 1967 and 1972.
During the second half of the 1960s, Whitaker thrived at the core of the London underground culture, where he worked with such figures as Eric Clapton (and Cream), Germaine Greer and Martin Sharp (of Oz mag) and Mick Jagger (on the film sets of Performance and Ned Kelly). Looking for further challenges, he covered major world events for Time and Life magazines and The New York Times, including the Florence floods and the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam.
These days, Whitaker is busy compiling a digital archive of his work but is rarely without a camera. His favourite subjects, he insists, are not the famous. "In fact, it doesn't help to make a better picture if they happen to be famous" he says. "Inspiration is anywhere and everywhere".
Pics copyright Robert Whitaker
