By Steve Marinucci
Published Friday, November 10, 1989
JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE AND RINGO, A GENERATION
AGO, A WORLD AWAY
THE BEATLES, AS THEY REALLY WERE
FOR three years, Dezo Hoffman kept his eyes -- and his lens -- trained on the most famous musical group of the '60s. And his black-and-white photographs of the Beatles captured their personalities better than any others.
Now, a collection of his Beatles portraits, printed from the original negatives and picked personally by Hoffman before his death in 1986, will be on exhibit beginning Saturday at Vallco Fashion Park, Interstate 280 and Wolfe Road, Cupertino, the eighth stop on a nationwide tour. The exhibition, which includes many photos on view for the first time in the United States, will run through Dec. 10.
Hoffman first met the group in 1962 while on a photo assignment for Record Mirror, a London pop-music weekly. That contact grew into a job as the group's official photographer, which lasted until 1965. Hoffman also photographed the group sporadically after that.
The exhibit, being presented by Silver K Fine Art, spans the '60s and includes photos ranging from Abbey Road recording sessions in 1962 to one of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken in 1970.
Hoffman, who had previously worked as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and had photographed other celebrities including Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra, was captivated by the Beatles.
''They were so unlike the typical celebrities I was used to dealing with," he wrote in "The Beatles Conquer America," a book of pictures taken during the Fab Four's first tour of the United States. "They had undeniable star quality, yet were so unspoilt. They were so much fun to be with."
He said he made many of his most revealing pictures by catching the Beatles off-guard and not letting them know which one of them he was aiming at. He proudly took credit for being, in his words, "the Daddy" of their photographic image. "I have a feeling that the whole secret of my pictures is that they are alive," he says in the introduction to "The Faces of John Lennon," a book of Lennon photos.
Admission is $4. Limited edition mounted and framed prints will be sold during the exhibit. Prices range from $350 to $750.
The Beatles -- Historic Images 1962-1967: Classic Photographs by Dezo Hoffman When: Saturday through Dec. 10; noon-9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Vallco Fashion Park, North Wolfe Road and Interstate 280, Cupertino.
Tickets: Admission: $4.
