ITEM#: BR045
PRICE: ------

LIMITED EDITION "BUTCHER COVER" PHOTO SESSION ARCHIVAL 17" X 15" DIGITAL CONTACT SHEET
SIGNED BY PHOTOGRAPHER ROBERT WHITAKER
ISSUED EXCLUSIVELY BY MORRISON HOTEL GALLERY, 2007
ONLY 25 PRODUCED. THIS IS NUMBER 6/25.

Robert Whitaker happened to meet the Beatles on their 1964 Australian tour when he accompanied one of his journalist friends to an interview with the band’s manager, Brian Epstein. The photo he took during that meeting resulted in Epstein offering him the position of staff photographer at NEMS, where he worked with all of the artists. During his time working with the Beatles, Whitaker became extremely close with the band, photographing them onstage, as well as in quiet moments at homE.

Whitaker's most celebrated work is the 1966 photo which was appropriated for The Beatles' infamous "Yesterday and Today" album cover, which was briefly released in the U.S. in JUNE 1966 but hastily PULLED OFF THE SHELVES AND RECALLED BY CAPITOL RECORDS.

On March 25, 1966, The Beatles went to Whitaker's Chelsea studio for a photo session, intending to take photos for the cover of (and/or to promote) their forthcoming single "Paperback Writer" B/W "RAIN".  The band and their photographer were determined to create something more than the run-of-the-mill publicity shots, and among the resulting images was one which has since become known as the "butcher" photo, in which The Beatles are depicted wearing white coats, draped with dismembered doll parts, AND slabs of meat.

WITH ONLY 25 PRODUCED IN 2007, AND SIGNED BY THE LATE ROBERT WHITAKER (1939-2011) IN BRIGHT WHITE THIN MARKER, IS AN EIGHT FRAME DIGITAL 17" X 15" ARCHIVAL CONTACT SHEET. THESE ORIGINAL NEGATIVES FROM THE "BUTCHER" PHOTO SESSION WERE EXCLUSIVELY DESIGNED AND ISSUED BY MORRISON HOTEL GALLERY FOR A VERY LIMITED TIME. THIS ONE IS NUMBER 6 OF 25.

PRESENTED PROFESSIONALLY MATTED AND FRAMED BY MORRISON HOTEL GALLERY, WITH OVERALL DIMENSIONS OF 26½" X 26". THIS RARE ITEM HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER "BUTCHER" RELATED COLLECTIBLES.