More than 350 previously unseen photos of The Beatles’ at two early US shows have come to light and are to be sold.
Mike Mitchell captured the Fab Four arriving at the venues, at pre-show press conferences and on stage in Washington DC and Baltimore in 1964.
Mitchell was just 18 at the time and took the photos in natural light because he couldn’t afford a flash.
Image copyrightMIKE MITCHELL/OMEGA AUCTIONS
Image copyrightMIKE MITCHELL/OMEGA AUCTIONSThe negatives are expected to fetch more than £250,000 when they are sold by Omega Auctions on 24 March.
There are 413 in total, which are being sold with copyright. Forty-six of those have been seen before, when single prints were auctioned for $362,000 (£224,000) in 2011.
Auctioneer Paul Fairweather said: “This is an incredible archive. The unique combination of perspective and light sets them apart from any other Beatles photographs of that period.”
Image copyrightMIKE MITCHELL/OMEGA AUCTIONS
Image copyrightMIKE MITCHELL/OMEGA AUCTIONSMitchell photographed the band at their first ever US concert, at Washington Coliseum on 11 February 1964 – two days after their famous appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
He was on hand again when they played Baltimore Civic Centre on 13 September 1964. He even got on stage to get a better vantage point.
Image copyrightMIKE MITCHELL/OMEGA AUCTIONS“I was very motivated to come up with stuff that was as unique as could possibly be,” he said.
“I looked and noticed that nobody was up on the stage. I thought, I wonder what it would be like to be up on the stage and see what I could get up there.”
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