Astrid Kirchherr

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Astrid Kirchherr (2010)
Signature Astrid Kirchherr

Astrid Kirchherr (born May 20, 1938 in Hamburg ; † May 12, 2020 there ) was a German photographer and artist . Her photos of the Beatles can be found in book publications worldwide.

Life

Astrid Kirchherr completed her studies in 1960 at the master school for fashion, textiles, graphics and advertising (today Department of Design at HAW Hamburg ) and in 1959 became Reinhart Wolf's assistant . Kirchherr learned from him to take black and white photographs with the two-eyed Rolleicord ; she also took her pictures outside, her pictures got by without artificial light. She only photographed color through maximum contrast.

In October 1960 she was taken to the Hamburg Kaiserkeller by her boyfriend at the time, Klaus Voormann and Jürgen Vollmer , where she met the Beatles - at that time still with Pete Best on drums. Kirchherr took the group's first professional photos at the beginning of November 1960.

She fell in love with the musician and artist Stuart Sutcliffe (1940–1962), for whom she cut the first mushroom head hairstyle ( English : mop-top ) based on Vollmer's model. John Lennon laughed about it at first, but in October 1961 he and Paul McCartney had Vollmer cut his hair accordingly.

Sutcliffe died in Kirchherr's arms in 1962 from a cerebral haemorrhage. In the following weeks she photographed a picture of George Harrison and John Lennon, which is still very present in the media , who were united in the attic of Sutcliffe in their mourning for their dead friend.

Kirchherr later worked as a freelance photographer and was hired by Stern to photograph the Beatles in 1964 while filming Yeah Yeah Yeah (A Hard Days Night). George Harrison wanted her to be paid decently by the publisher, and that's why she and colleague Max Scheler were allowed on the set. In 1967 she married the drummer Gibson Kemp and withdrew from the public. A photo on the cover of George Harrison's album Wonderwall Music was one of their last released. Paul McCartney wrote the song Baby's in Black about Kirchherr. In the 1970s and 1980s she worked as a housewife and in various professions. Since the 1990s she has been marketing her photo archive and has appeared at exhibitions and fan meetings around the world and has published various illustrated books, including a. at Genesis Publications in England in high quality, signed and limited.

At the end of 2011, she offered her entire photo archive, including publication rights, for sale through the Guernsey's auction house. Before the start of the auction, however, the pictures were privately sold for an undisclosed sum to an American family of investors who - together with the photographer Kai-Uwe Franz , a long-time friend of Kirchherr's - have since watched over their artistic legacy. From time to time, her photos are made available to the public in carefully curated exhibitions at selected locations.

Astrid Kirchherr lived in Hamburg. She was married twice.

In popular culture

In the 1994 movie Backbeat , which is about the beginnings of the Beatles, you play an important role. Actress Sheryl Lee took on the role of Kirchherr .

The biographical graphic novel Baby's In Black - The Story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe by Arne Bellstorf was published by Reprodukt in 2010 .

Publications

  • Liverpool Days (with Max Scheler ). Genesis Publications, 1994
  • Golden Dreams (with Max Scheler). Genesis Publications, 1996
  • When We Was Fab (with Olivia Harrison ), Genesis Publications, 2003
  • The Beatles. How it all began (with Max Scheler). Rolf Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-89910-378-6
  • Astrid Kirchherr with The Beatles . Damiani, Bologna 2017, ISBN 978-88-6208-574-8

literature

  • Arne Bellstorf : Baby's in Black - The Story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe . (Graphic Novel), Reprodukt, 2010. ISBN 978-3-941099-12-8
  • Thorsten Knublauch, Axel Korinth: Come on, give me your hand - The Beatles in Germany 1960–1970. Books on Demand, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8334-8530-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c your first female photographer. ZEIT Online, May 15, 2020, accessed on May 15, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Astrid Kirchherr: Beatles photographer dies aged 81. BBC News, May 15, 2020, accessed on May 15, 2020 (English).
  3. ^ Willi Winkler: Beatles photographer Astrid Kirchherr. Retrieved May 21, 2020 .
  4. ^ Arne Bellstorf : Baby's black. The story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe . Reproduct Verlag, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Kirchherr, Astrid
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer and artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 2020
Place of death Hamburg