R.I.P. Astrid Kirchherr

Although Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are in good shape, it is not a secret that the years go by and those who witnessed an unrepeatable time begin to leave us. Last Wednesday May 13th, the photographer and artist Astrid Kirchherr died in Hamburg (Germany) at the age 81. Perhaps her name is not familiar to you but her photographs surely are. The German artist is an important figure in Beatles history, her name is connected to theirs in many ways and most important she is considered The Beatles first photographer.

Self portrait. Photo by Astrid Kirchherr

Astrid was engaged to “fifth Beatle” Stuart Sutcliffe after he decided to quit The Beatles to attend the Hamburg College of Art to pursue a painting career. However, Stu would never become a painter nor would Astrid marry him because shortly after he was brutally beaten in the streets of Hamburg and would die of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 1962 at the age of 21. Years after Kirchherr would work as set photographer on the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night movie and would work as photographer for one of George Harrison's albums. Not to mention that she dated longtime Beatles collaborator Klaus Voormann and married drummer Gibson Kemp, precisely the drummer who replaced Ringo in the band Rory and the Hurricanes when Ringo joined The Beatles.

George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon (from left to right). Photo by Astrid Kirchherr

But Astrid Kirchherr, who was a support figure in the early days of the Beatles and also influenced their style will always be remember by the photographs that she took with her Rolleicord camera at a fairground in a municipal park called Hamburger Dom, close to the Reeperbahn in a very grey and still destroyed city of Hamburg in the very beginning of the 60s.

Cover photograph by Astrid Kirchherr