Astrid Kirchherr

Beyond The Beatles

In 1964 Kirchherr became a freelance photographer. With her colleague Max Scheler she took a series of behind-the-scenes photographs of The Beatles during the filming of A Hard Day's Night, commissioned by the German magazine Stern. She also took the cover photograph for George Harrison's first solo album, 1968's Wonderwall Music.

Kirchherr found it hard to become accepted as a photographer in the 1960s, and claimed to have taken very few images since 1967:

Every magazine and newspaper wanted me to photograph The Beatles again. Or they wanted my old stuff, even if it was out of focus, whether they were nice or not. They wouldn't look at my other work. It was very hard for a girl photographer in the 60s to be accepted. In the end I gave up.

She worked as an adviser on the 1994 film Backbeat, which chronicled The Beatles' time in Hamburg and the relationship between her and Sutcliffe. Kirchherr was impressed with Stephen Dorff, who played Sutcliffe in the film.

I got the shock of my life... He's the right age, but when he looked up, and I saw this shadow, my arms were geese pimpling. The way he talked, the way he smoked, his gestures, were just like Stu's. I was very impressed.

She has published a series of photography, and her work has been exhibited in Hamburg, Liverpool, Bremen, London, New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Vienna, and at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

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