NASHVILLE, TENN.- The Frist Art Museum presents Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, an unprecedented look at the extraordinary archive of recently discovered photographs made by Paul McCartney at the start of Beatlemania. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, the exhibition is on view in the Frist’s Upper-Level Galleries through January 26, 2026.

Eyes of the Storm is an intimate and historic opportunity to see nearly 300 photographs made by Paul McCartney between December 1963 and February 1964, along with a selection of ephemera providing context for the story told by the photographs. Over the course of these three short months, The Beatles—Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—were propelled beyond being the most popular band in Britain to an international cultural phenomenon.

The photographs in this exhibition, taken by McCartney with his own camera, provide a uniquely personal perspective on what it was like to be a Beatle—from gigs in Liverpool and London to performing on The Ed Sullivan show in New York for a then unparalleled television audience of 73 million.

Drawn from McCartney’s personal archive, the majority of these images have never been seen before this exhibition tour. They allow us to experience The Beatles’ extraordinarily rapid rise from a successful regional band to global stardom through McCartney’s eyes. At a time when so many camera lenses were on them, this perspective—from the inside—brings fresh insight to the band, their experiences, the fans, and the early 1960s. Frist Art Museum Chief Curator Mark Scala notes, “There is something wonderfully revealing about these behind-the-scenes glimpses of musicians we thought we knew so well. What stands out is not just the sweetness and immediacy of the images, but McCartney’s intuitive understanding of how to make a compelling picture.”

In 2020, a trove of nearly one thousand photographs taken by McCartney on a Pentax 35 mm film camera he acquired in fall 1963 was rediscovered in his archive. McCartney says that “It was a crazy whirlwind that we were living through, touring and working pretty much every day and seeing loads of people who wanted to photograph us. There were loads of eyes, and cameras, at the center of this storm.”

The photographs reveal the intensity of touring and of long days spent in rehearsal, in hotels, and on the road, being followed by the media at every stage. “They evoke an affectionate family album, picturing his fellow band members—John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—at a time when their lives were changing irrevocably,” writes Rosie Broadley, head of collection displays and senior curator of 20th-century collections at London’s National Portrait Gallery. “Where McCartney appears in the photographs, he had handed his camera to a member of The Beatles’ team, enabling us to capture glimpses of him performing onstage or posing for pictures.”

The earliest photographs in this exhibition were made during a tour that began at the Odeon cinema in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in southwest England, on November 1, 1963, and depict the band’s opening acts. The next section documents their arrival in Paris on January 14, 1964, and their intense schedule—photo shoots and recording sessions planned around an 18-day run at Paris’s Olympia Theatre, which sometimes included three sets per day.

Photographs in the following section show the band as they traveled from London to New York, where they arrived on February 7, 1964. McCartney’s first images of Manhattan were made through the window of the band’s chauffeur-driven car while fans pursued them down West 58th Street. The Beatles were booked to stay at the luxurious Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue, and McCartney photographed the horse-mounted police controlling the crowds from the car as they approached the hotel. In New York, The Beatles were scheduled to appear on the popular Ed Sullivan Show, where the first of three televised performances aired on February 9, 1964.

Traveling in February 1964, McCartney directed his lens toward fans, workers, police, and press photographers who responded to his attention with surprise and delight. “In these photographs, McCartney connects with the everyday people he sees, capturing their humanity with empathy. He has said that he has always been drawn to representing the lives of ordinary people in his creative work due to his background. He was raised in a working-class family in Liverpool, where his father worked as a cotton merchant, one of the city’s major trade industries,” notes Broadley.

When The Beatles arrived in Miami to perform again on The Ed Sullivan Show, this time from the Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach on February 16, McCartney switched from black-and-white to color film to capture the vivid colors of their new surroundings, a sharp contrast to the blizzards in Washington, DC, just a few days before. He says, “The color pictures start when we get to Miami . . . it’s like we were living in a black and white world on the rest of the tour and suddenly we’re in wonderland, Florida, the sun, the swimming pools.”

In Miami Beach, the band was finally able to take a few days off work, and McCartney photographed his friends relaxing by the pool, taking a boat trip, swimming, and even attempting to water ski. “Imbued with the spirit of holiday snaps, McCartney’s Miami photographs reflect the fun and novelty of their time there. The band relaxed their usual sartorial standards, swapping suits for ‘Beatles’-branded caps and toweling shirts, provided by the Deauville,” writes Broadley.

After their extraordinary three-month journey, The Beatles returned in August 1964 for their first full North American tour, performing 32 shows across 25 cities in the United States and Canada. McCartney was no longer photographing the band’s experiences with the same intensity as during their first visit, but a small number of photographs taken during this tour record some of the musicians who traveled with The Beatles as opening acts.

On the exhibition’s audio tour, guests can listen to McCartney’s personal reflections about selected works. While the exhibition is on view in Nashville, public programs will include panel discussions, photography ARTlabs, musical performances, and film screenings.