Astrid Kirchherr, Who Helped Create the Beatles’ Image, Dies at 81

The stark black-and-white photographs she took of the group in Hamburg, Germany, before the musicians were famous captured both their toughness and their sensitivity.

"Mr. Sutcliffe, Mr. Lennon’s best friend from art school, was a gifted painter but an indifferent musician; he joined the Beatles after winning a cash prize in a Liverpool art contest and allowing Mr. Lennon to persuade him to buy an electric bass. But even before he met Ms. Kirchherr, he had decided to leave the group and to return to his art studies. Once he decided to remain in Germany with Ms. Kirchherr, he enrolled at the Hamburg College of Art as a student of Eduardo Paolozzi.

He continued to play with the Beatles in Hamburg, though, and through him Ms. Kirchherr influenced the group’s style. When Mr. Sutcliffe adopted her short, brushed-forward hairstyle, the other Beatles first mocked him, preferring to maintain the greased-back Elvis Presley style. But Mr. Harrison soon adopted the new haircut as well. Both Mr. Lennon and Mr. McCartney followed suit in October 1961. Mr. Sutcliffe also began wearing Ms. Kirchherr’s clothing, including collarless jackets she had made, patterned after those of the French designer Pierre Cardin. The Beatles briefly adopted that style as well.!"


 READ OBIT BY ALAN KOZINN