Paul McCartney's personal Beatles photo archive is going on display in London

an image of the digitised negative film roll from McCartney's film camera

(Image credit: Paul McCartney)

published 15 August 2025

Beatlemaniacs get ready, as a collection of Paul McCartney’s exclusive backstage pics has resurfaced and is going on display.

The exhibition, entitled Rearview Mirror: Liverpool-London-Paris, will be on at The Gagosian in London. It’s kicking off on 28th August and running until October 4th.

The exhibition features snaps from 1963, when the band embarked on their first UK tour as headliners, a residency in Paris, and multiple TV appearances. It was the year that kick-started Beatlemania, and the band shot to stratospheric levels of popularity.

A companion amongst all the craziness of that year? Paul McCartney’s 35mm Pentax camera. The photographs are from December 1963 to February 1964.

an image of the mirror picture McCartney took on his 1963 film camera

McCartney photographed the band in the weeks before they made their first visit to America. Some of the shots that were taken are backstage snaps from Finsbury Park Astoria, London Palladium, and The Lewisham. During this period, the band also did a three-week residency in Paris at the Olympia, and appeared on both the Beatles Christmas Show and the BBC’s Juke Box Jury.

There is also a rare self-portrait of McCartney himself, taken using the mirror in the attic room of his London family home, of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher. The series ends with a picture of the band preparing for a flight to New York at the end of February 1964, right before their international stardom status was officially certified.

an image of the negative film imagine from the original film camera roll

Remastered from original negatives and contact sheets thought to have been lost for over half a century, each of the works has been prominently signed by McCartney, issued in a small edition, and framed in a bespoke profile of his design.

Rearview Mirror: Liverpool–London–Paris follows McCartney’s debut presentation at the gallery’s sister site in Beverly Hills earlier this year, and coincides with the touring exhibition Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, which opened at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2023.

You can find out more on Gagosian’s website, and find the Gallery itself on 17-19 Davies Street.

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Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.

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