Forty years ago everyone’s favorite rockers John, Paul, George and Ringo had journeyed to India to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram to find themselves. Noted Canada-based photographer and film-maker Paul Saltzman – at that time another lost soul – was also there and photographed the famous foursome.
Saltzman, who is a two-time Emmy Award winner, managed to shoot intimate pictures of the four. It was certainly a creative time for the Beatles which resulted in 48 songs being written in seven weeks.
Now decades later, New Yorkers got to see these rare candid shots at “The Beatles in India: By Paul Saltzman’ a photography exhibition arranged by the Indo-American Arts Council at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in Soho. Aroon Shivdasani, director of IAAC, had created a beautiful Indian atmosphere with ethnic décor, sitar and tabla players and Indian eats. Guests included Pattie Boyd, George Harrison’s ex-wife. All around were the huge images of the Beatles, taking visitors back to the 60’s. These intimate pictures have great power to evoke the heartbeat of a generation.
This exhibit marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles visit to India is traveling to 7 cities, and the gallery was crowded with Beatles fans old and new. Saltzman’s book ‘The Beatles in Rishikesh’ was published in 2000 and in 2006, ‘The Beatles in India’ – a limited edition book complete with CD and DVD, with museum quality photographic prints was published.
Saltzman who is shooting documentaries starring Morgan Freeman and Harry Belafonte, has many special memories of the Beatles. He recalls once George Harrison invited him into his small meditation room as he practiced his sitar. “He said to me, without ego and with true humility: ‘Like we’re the Beatles after all, aren’t we. We have all the money you could ever want. We have all the fame you could ever wish for. But, it isn’t love. It isn’t health. It isn’t peace, inside, is it?”
Text © Lavina Melwani
Photo: Michael Toolan/IAAC
