In August 1967, The Beatles and their band manager Brian Epstein enlisted the photographer Richard Avedon to help visualize the psychedelic foundations of their groundbreaking eighth studio album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which debuted a few months earlier. The shoot took place at a photographic studio in a penthouse in Thompson House, 200 Gray’s Inn Road, London on August 11, 1967.
Through color manipulation, Avedon created hallucinatory, Day-Glo portraits of the Liverpool band brimming with symbolism of psychedelia, peace, and love—John Lennon gazes out through swirling glasses, Paul McCartney holds flowers, George Harrison is decorated with henna, and Ringo Starr carries a dove.
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