Press Release
These images, stowed away in a safe deposit box for over 40 years, are the modern equivalent of a newly-found treasure. Considered a second Royal family in England, the Beatles are here told by Emilio Lari who portrayed them when only twenty. During these years, when thinking about these photos, Emilio would remember John Lennon in this pose – a snapshot taken by chance, capturing the fleeting moment of a dress-up, staged to amuse the crew – shot in ¼ of a second by one of the four Leica cameras carried around his neck while walking along the corridors of the Twickenam studios.
The cover does not give us an image of the Beatles of those years, it does not describe the style of the book and does not reveal it. It is simply sensational. And so is the rest of the book, with its unpublished photos.
Produced by Fataka International, the BACK TO HELP! project (edited by Raffaella Guidobono, published by Lampi di Stampa and distributed by Messaggerie Libri) for the first time shows the 99 photographs of the Beatles taken by Emilio Lari in 1965 on the HELP! set directed by Richard Lester; the 100th photo was taken by Ringo Starr with Emilio’s Hasselblad, his fifth camera.
Forty years ago, John Lennon and Paul McCartney felt it was time to shout out for HELP! These incredible images are shown to the public only now, for the first time, forty years later. It doesn’t really matter if the timing is accidental, or if some feel there is a historical necessity in it.
BACK TO HELP! is our way of recovering, throughout these images and photos, that hope, that energy. Today, with Emilio Lari’s shots, we can be part of these scenes, witness the human element in them. In his photos Lari seems to be within and around the Beatles, an invisible presence, and we can be there with him.
