Tag: Ed Sullivan Show

With all the hype happening this week around the 50^th Anniversary of the Beatles coming to America, I couldn’t help but reflect how much this band influenced my own career as a photographer and filmmaker.

1. I was inspired me to “capture” history (and use my camera as a means to that end). To start with, the first pictures that I remember taking as a child were photos I snapped of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.  I vividly remember as I anxiously awaited the show to begin, that I needed to document it somehow.  It was just too important not too.  In fact it was so important that I have kept that snapshot in a small box of memorabilia for 50 years! I’ve spent a career documenting some of the most incredible places, people and events of my time.
2. They inspired me to be a storyteller.  I used to orally tell stories to just about anyone who would listen to me when I was a very young child.  But when the Beatles hit the scene, about the same time I started noticing the opposite sex, I turned my fantasies into my own written stories.  I’m still writing stories and now translating them into ePubs, books and movies.
3. They expanded my universe.  I began to “see” things differently because of the Beatles.  I became aware of different cultures, countries, music and wit. It was like an awakening for me and I knew then that I wanted to explore as many cultures and experiences as I could. I’ve spent a lifetime exploring the unknown.
4. They taught me to always learn, grow and challenge myself. I grew up as a child and later a teenager, during one of the most pivotal and changing decades in America. As the Beatles moved beyond the “feel good” and innocent lyrics of songs like “She loves you…..yeah, yeah, yeah”, to the lyrical depths found on the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, I too was changing.  It was like we were growing together. I remind myself daily to always be learning, exploring, growing and challenging myself and that has helped me stay fresh in my career.
5. I learned that “The Beatles” were more than the sum of 4 individuals. John, Paul, George and Ringo all brought their own unique talents and personalities to make up the most phenomenal band of all time.  But they were also savvy enough to know they needed expert guidance and collaborated with great people like Brian Epstein and George Martin.  It taught me the importance of collaboration and to surround myself with people who have talents that I don’t possess.