Here, There, and Everywhere

In March 2024, University of Delaware College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean and Department of Art Conservation Chair Debra Hess Norris spoke about photograph preservation, The Beatles, and cultural memory as part of the Chrysler Museum's exhibition of photographs by Sir Paul McCartney. This extraordinary opportunity brought together Norris's passion and 50+ year love affair with The Beatles, McCartney, and the profession of photograph conservation in ways she could not have imagined. 

“For one hour and fifteen minutes," said Norris, “I spoke to a fantastically engaged audience as part of the Chrysler Museum's public programming associated with the blockbuster exhibition, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm. This exhibition featured more than 250 stunning photographs taken between November 1963 and February 1964, illuminating the period that The Beatles became rock superstars.​

“The photographs were rediscovered as silver gelatin contact sheets in Sir Paul's personal archive in 2020.  Sir Paul had marked his favorite images with a white chinagraph or grease pencil. The exhibition included meticulous digital and analog prints – in black-and-white and color. . . . I learned it was Sir Paul's curatorial team who approved my participation and Sir Paul who affirmed my image selection."

The intimate and very personal exhibition was drawn from McCartney's private archives. McCartney used his Pentax camera and captured the Fab Four— himself, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr–as they rocketed from being the most idolized band in the United Kingdom to the most popular musicians in the world. ​​​

When interviewed by Christie's last September, McCartney said “Looking at these photos now, decades after they were taken, I find there's a sort of innocence about them. Everything was new to us at this point. But I like to think I wouldn't take them any differently today. They now bring back so many stories, a flood of special memories, which is one of the many reasons I love them all and know that they will always fire my imagination. Every picture brings back memories. I can try and place where we were and what we were doing to either side of the frame. Pictures of us with the photographers bring back memories of being in New York for the first time and being taken down to Central Park, the New York hard-bitten cameramen shouting out, 'Hey Beatle, hey Beatle.' We'd look at them and they'd take the picture. 'One more for the West Coast.' I remember all those stories."

“As I lectured about the characterization of silver gelatin prints –filamentary silver, a gelatin binder and fiber-based or resin-coated paper - I used [the] fabulous images by Sir Paul as examples," recounts Norris. “Early images of The Beatles demonstrated how photography has the capacity to document history and capture joy — Here, There, and Everywhere."

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Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm was curated by Paul McCartney with Sarah Brown on behalf of MPL Communications Limited and Rosie Broadley for the National Portrait Gallery, London, and presented by the Chrysler Museum of Art. The exhibition was supported by the Horace W. Goldsmith Special Exhibitions Endowment. McCartney quotes courtesy Chrysler Museum of Art. McCartney images credited as shown. Image of Debra Hess Norris courtesy of Norris​.​

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