Ringo Starr Asks McCartney, Yoko Ono to Unearth Missing Beatles Photos
Ringo Starr recently unearthed over 250 intimate Beatles images for a book, Photograph, out September 21st. Now, the iconic drummer is asking Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison to explore their personal photo archives for a potential follow-up project. “If they’re listening… dig out the negatives,” he said during an exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery that presented photos from his book, The Guardian reports.
Photograph features charming shots of the Beatles lounging and goofing off, along with images captured during the band’s first American tour in 1964. Starr discovered the material via old negatives that had remained unseen for nearly three decades. “I had a lot of stuff in storage, and we had to move everything, and I started finding books of negatives, a lot of them I didn’t know I still had,” he said. Given the abundance of quality shots, the drummer assumes his bandmates stored away their own hidden treasures.
“The other boys had cameras too, so the next plan is I want to get the rest of my pictures, Paul’s pictures; Yoko will have John’s pictures, Olivia, George’s,” he said. “It would make a great book. I’ll be in a lot more photos… If I put it out there, they might respond.”
Twenty portraits from the book will be displayed in the National Portrait Gallery bookshop as part of a limited edition. The cover photo, which Starr playfully dubbed “the first selfie,” finds the young drummer taking a picture of himself in the mirror. “These are shots that no one else could have taken,” he said of the collection. “Together, they chart the story of four lads from Liverpool trying to live normal lives amidst the frenzy that surrounded them.”
Photograph was initially released as a limited edition book in 2013, but Genesis Publications has repackaged the set for the upcoming “Open Edition” release. Starr is donating all royalties to the Lotus Foundation.