Astrid Kirchherr, John Lennon – poster from the Heroines Collection
German Photographer of The Beatles
German photographer Astrid Kirchherr was born in Hamburg and studied fashion design and photography under Reinhard Wolf, working as his assistant until 1963.
In late 1960 she created the first formal group portrait of The Beatles whom she had met and befriended in Hamburg. Astrid arranged the band-members with their instruments on a trailer with the Hamburg fairground rollercoaster in the background. George, John and Paul were in the centre with Pete and Stuart on the sides. She made many stylish black and white portraits of them over the next few years of their career and was engaged to Stuart Sutcliffe at the time of his death in 1962. She is attributed to influencing their image with her modern, atmospheric portraits.
She worked with them again in 1964 covering the filming of A Hard Day’s Night for Stern magazine and did her final work – a portrait of George Harrison, for his Wonderwall solo album – in 1968.
She published her Beatles’ work only in 1995 as Liverpool Days and Hamburg Days in 1999.
She sold her archive in 2011 but many of her early portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery collection.
By Paula Vellett
