RARE AND FAMOUS BEATLES PORTRAITS Photographed in the Cavern Club by Hatami in 1963!

The Beatles made their first appearance at the Cavern Club on 9 February 1961 after returning to Liverpool from a stint in Hamburg, Germany. They went on to make 292 appearances at the club in just over 2 years, with their last occurring on 3 August 1963. By this time "Beatlemania" was sprouting heartily across England, with girls clamoring to see The Beatles and screaming when they got a glimpse of them. Because of this, the group was forced to hide out and sneak into their concerts, and the small club could no longer satisfy audience demand.   In December, 1963 Iranian photographer Shahrokh Hatami (1928 - 2017) was sent to Liverpool by Paris Match to cover the Beatlemania phenomenon. He met up with “the lads” on a day that they had multiple performances in their hometown, with a short break in-between. The band, along with their crew, and Hatami decided to ride out their time between gigs in hiding, at their now-legendary hometown venue, The Cavern Club.   The club was known for being situated in a cellar, so Hatami was prepared for a low-light shooting situation. In addition to his standard black & white film, he brought along some special tungsten color film to the shoot, in order to make the most of the ambient light, and to try to avoid using a flash in such close-quarters.   Hatami photographed the band in the backstage dressing room area, where they had spent countless hours in the years prior. In addition to candid group shots of the band smoking, reading fan mail and looking over magazines, he captured them tuning their instruments as they began to prepare for their next performance. They are dressed in their matching turtlenecks and their iconic suits hang in protective bags on the wall behind the door. It's worth noting that these few shots are the earliest-known color photographs of The Beatles backstage at the Cavern.   Along with these candid shots, he managed to get each of The Beatles in the frame alone for slightly more formal portraits which resulted in four wonderful individual photographs. The tone of these portraits is very reminiscent of the iconic Meet The Beatles album cover, created just a few months earlier. In the early 2000s, after a long career in fashion and photo-journalism, Hatami rediscovered these images as he began to review his professional archive. At the time, the market for Rock & Roll Photographs was still new but he decided to see whether Beatles fans and photography collectors might appreciate them as fine-art photographs. In 2005 he printed one large montage of the individual black & white portraits to offer through Sotheby's and it quickly sold at auction for $12,000 - a remarkable price at the time, and one that clearly indicated that collectors would love a chance to own his work.

The media were also soon drawn to Hatami's photographs, and often requested his work for special features honoring The Beatles and various historic anniversaries and occasions - like the 50th Anniversary of the British Invasion and Paul McCartney's 75th birthday by LIFE magazine, both of which used Paul's portrait on the covers! (at left)

THE PHOTOGRAPHS The portraits described above have all been produced as fine-art prints and are available for collectors to purchase as photographic prints on paper. These photographs are all signed, limited edition archival pigment prints on matte finish heavy-weight paper and are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.   They can be acquired as individual pieces, as a matched-number suite of four, or as a montage that combines all four portraits into one fine-art piece. The BUY NOW links below each option will take you directly to that item's page on our secure website. PLEASE NOTE: A maximum of five each of the individual portraits will be sold, the rest of the edition is reserved for sale as matched-number suites. Due to their irreplaceable nature and extreme rarity, prices will increase as pieces sell. Only TWO of each of the individual photographs are available at the price shown here.

John Lennon 20" x 24" sheet size B&W Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

Paul McCartney 20" x 24" sheet size B&W Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

George Harrison 20" x 24" sheet size B&W Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

Ringo Starr 20" x 24" sheet size B&W Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

The Fab Four Portrait Suite Suite of 4 Individual Portraits Matched-numbered portfolio of photographs Signed, limited editions of 25 each $15,000 unframed    BUY NOW  Only THREE of each of the suites are available at the price shown here.

THE COLOR VERSIONS Shortly after Hatami produced his black & white photographs of The Beatles, his interest in digital manipulation coincided with newly available high-quality archival printing capabilities and he began experimenting with color toning and printing on canvas. He produced a series of one-of-a-kind, large format canvas prints in the process, each one with a different monotone tint. They turned out so well, we encouraged him to produce an edition of his individual photographs on paper in the same way. As with the pieces above, these photographs are all signed, limited edition archival pigment prints on matte finish heavy-weight paper and are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. They can be acquired as individual pieces, as a matched-number suite of four, or as a montage that combines all four portraits into one fine-art piece. The BUY NOW links below each option will take you directly to that item's page on our secure website. PLEASE NOTE: A maximum of five each of the individual portraits will be sold, the rest of the edition is reserved for sale as matched-number suites. Due to their irreplaceable nature and extreme rarity, prices will increase as pieces sell. Only TWO of each of the individual photographs are available at the price shown here.

John Lennon 20" x 24" sheet size Color Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

Paul McCartney 20" x 24" sheet size   Color Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

George Harrison 20" x 24" sheet size   Color Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

Ringo Starr 20" x 24" sheet size Color Photograph Signed edition (25) $3,000 unframed  BUY NOW

The Fab Four Color Portrait Suite Suite of 4 Individual Color Portraits Matched-number portfolio of photographs Signed, limited editions of 25 each $15,000 unframed    BUY NOW  Only THREE of each of the suites are available at the price shown here.

THE MONTAGE Like his original concept that he created in black & white for a Sotheby's auction back in 2005, Hatami returned to this stunning montage design for his new color versions, capturing all four individual portraits in a single layout. The resulting bold and straightforward design, combined with the Pop styling and colors has made these pieces extremely popular with collectors and they have become one of the marquis collectibles found in major Beatles collections worldwide.

The Fab Four Color Quad Montage 20" x 24" sheet size Color Photograph Signed, limited edition of 25 $9,500 unframed  BUY NOW

All images © Shahrokh Hatami >> CLICK TO SHOP OUR BEATLES ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE <<

The above link also features several other photographs of The Beatles shot by Hatami in the Cavern, along with a wide variety of other artworks by many of the world's foremost artists associated with the Fab Four.