Beatles photographer Robert Whitaker at La Jolla exhibit

Robert Whitaker, who took many famous photos of The Beatles in the mid-1960s, appeared at an exhibit of his photography at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in La Jolla, California on Saturday, April 25. (Whitaker is pictured on the left with Morrison Hotel Gallery owner and photographer, Henry Diltz)

Whitaker's most famous picture of The Beatles is probably the notorious album cover for the U.S. album release of "Yesterday and Today" known as the "butcher" cover. Whitaker describes where the idea for the photo shoot of The Beatles pictured with baby dolls and slabs of meat came from: "It was inspired by a dream I had about the Beatles being ripped to shreds by all these young girls when they came out of a stadium."


Whitaker's first shots of The Beatles were taken in Australia in 1964 when he was running a freelance photo studio in Melbourne. The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, then asked Whitaker to become a staff photographer at NEMS. One of his first assignments was photographing The Beatles during their second American tour including the historic Shea Stadium concert in 1965 in New York. He spent the next two years traveling with The Beatles and shooting them on tour, in the recording studio, during private moments and in formal photo sessions.

Whitaker recently published a book of his photographs of The Beatles called "Eight Days a Week: Inside the Beatles Final World Tour". The exhibit at the La Jolla location of the Morrison Hotel Gallery runs through May 31.

Re-live the Woodstock experience 40 years later

August 15, 16, 17 of 2009 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, one of the great musical moments of the 1960s. A half a million people gathered on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York for a 3-day concert event which featured performances by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to name a few.

Commemorating this cultural and musical milestone will be Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, situated at the site of the historic festival in Bethel, New York, and home to The Museum at Bethel Woods, which celebrates Woodstock and the 1960s. Wade Lawrence, Director of the Museum, says of Woodstock: "It was a musical moment. It was a time of love and peace. It represented everything that the 1960s had led up to."

The Museum is currently hosting a special exhibit courtesy of Hard Rock International called "Rock Heroes: Selections from the Hard Rock International Memorabilia Collection", which features 16 authentic pieces of Woodstock memorabilia from Hard Rock's vast collection including a vest worn by Jimi Hendrix and a guitar played and smashed by Pete Townshend. This exhibit will appear at The Museum at Bethel Woods through May 31.

For those who can't travel to Bethel, New York, a 40th anniversary two-disc DVD of the concert will be released on June 9 called "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director's Cut". A collector's edition box set will also be available.

Also, a limited edition 2-volume boxed set will be released by specialty books publisher, Genesis Publications, called the "Woodstock Experience". Working with Woodstock’s Executive Producer, Michael Lang, Genesis has created the definitive record of three days that shook the world - a multimedia boxed set comprised of 2 volumes, new essays, fine art pieces inspired by Woodstock, and even an original Woodstock Music & Art Fair event pass.



For more info: The Museum at Bethel Woods official website