Fiona Adams, photographer of The Beatles and other rock stars, dies at 84

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Fiona Adams, photographer of The Beatles and other rock stars, dies at 84
BBC NEWS
10 July 2020


The Beatles photographed by Fiona Adams in April 1963
GETTY IMAGES

Photographer Fiona Adams, whose famous shot of The Beatles jumping in the air was used on the sleeve of the Twist and Shout EP, has died at the age of 84.

Adams captured the iconic image of the Fab Four on a London bomb site for Boyfriend magazine in April 1963.

The photo was then used on the record sleeve and has been described by the National Portrait Gallery as "the one that defined their early look".

Adams also snapped many other pop acts, from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones.

Adams' photo of Jimi Hendrix also features bass player Noel Redding (left)
GETTY IMAGES

According to the late photographer's website, The Beatles "readily agreed" when Adams asked them to pose for Boyfriend magazine.







BOYFRIEND MAGAZINE

Having previously spotted an undeveloped bombsite near Euston station, she hailed a taxi and took them to the abandoned area.

"I climbed down the rubble into a bombed-out cellar, open to the sky, and had a wonderful session with the Beatles lined up on the wall above," she wrote.

Adams went on to take many more shots of John, Paul, George and Ringo, the last of whom celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this week.

Adams took this shot of Bob Dylan at London's Savoy Hotel in 1966
GETTY IMAGES

Cilla Black, Adam Faith, Sandy Shaw and Dusty Springfield were among other icons of the 1960s who were photographed by Adams for Boyfriend, Fabulous and other publications.

She later moved into travel photography before marrying and having two children.

In 2009, some of her images featured in Beatles to Bowie, an exhibition of 1960s photography at the National Portrait Gallery.

Her death at a hospice on Guernsey on 26 June was confirmed by her son Karl, who said she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February.

Adams' death comes two months after that of Astrid Kirchherr, the German photographer famous for her early shots of The Beatles.

BEATLES JUMPING SHOT 
The photograph chosen for the cover of the Beatles "Twist and Shout" EP released in July, 1963. "..this has become one of the key images of the 1960s. With its explosive energy, it represents an early salvo in what John Lennon later called 'A Revolution among Youth'."
(extract from the Exhibition Catalogue by Terence Pepper & Jon Savage)


18 April 1963 Fiona Adams Photo session
















Boyfriend magazine, 15 June 1963