Paul McCartney's Forgotten Beatles Photos Exhibited for First Time in France at Musée Granet

An exhibition of Paul McCartney's previously unseen photographs from 1963-64, titled "Eyes of the Storm," opens at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence from July 4 to January 3. The collection, discovered by McCartney during the 2020 pandemic in a shoebox of negatives and contact sheets, documents the Beatles' rise to fame during their first U.S. tour. Curated by Rosie Broadley, the show debuted at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2023 and has since traveled to Tokyo and San Francisco. It features 275 prints selected from over a thousand scans, capturing intimate moments of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, as well as street scenes in Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, and Miami. McCartney used a Pentax 35mm SLR, learning from professional photographers like Dezo Hoffmann, Harry Benson, Robert Freeman, and Norman Parkinson. The exhibition highlights his instinctive eye and the historical context of Beatlemania, including the iconic Ed Sullivan Show performance watched by 73 million viewers.