Роберт Уитэйкер: Фотограф The Beatles и австралийский период жизни.

British photographer (1939–2011)

Robert Whitaker (13 November 1939 – 20 September 2011) was a British photographer, best known internationally for his many photographs of The Beatles, taken between 1964 and 1966, with his best known work, the "Butcher Cover", which featured on the band's 1966's US only album Yesterday and Today. He also worked with the rock group Cream, photos from which were used in the Martin Sharp designed collage on the cover of their 1967 LP Disraeli Gears.

Robert Whitaker, born in Britain in 1939, described himself as "one part Aussie lad" since his father and his grandfather were both Australian. According to Whitaker, his grandfather built the Princes Bridge in Melbourne. Although he has worked mostly in Britain, Australia and Australian connections featured significantly in his life and career. Whitaker began work in London as a photographer in the late 1950s but he moved to Melbourne in 1961, where he began studying at the University of Melbourne and became part of the small but flourishing Melbourne arts scene. According to art historian David Mellor, it was his three years in Australia that transformed Whitaker's work as a photographer. A major influence was undoubtedly his friendship with two of the leading figures of the Melbourne art world, Georges Mora and Mirka Mora, and through them he came into contact with numerous major figures in Australian art and letters including John Reed and Sunday Reed, Ian Sime, Charles and Barbara Blackman, Barrett Reid, Laurence Hope, Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan and Joy Hester, as well as his own peer group including Martin Sharp, Richard Neville, Barry Humphries and Germaine Greer. He photographed many of these people including Georges and Mirka Mora and their three sons, Philippe Mora (who became a noted filmmaker), future gallery owner William Mora and Tiriel Mora, later a successful Australian actor who featured in the satirical TV series Frontline and the acclaimed comedy film The Castle.

Whitaker was running a freelance penthouse photo studio in Flinders Street, Melbourne when he had his fateful meeting with The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein, during their 1964 Australian tour. His meeting came about more or less by accident, when he was asked to accompany a journalist friend to an interview with Brian Epstein for an article for Melbourne community newspaper The Jewish News. Whitaker's first published photograph featuring the group depicted Paul McCartney and George Harrison each holding up boomerangs presented to them by their Australian fans. Robert Whitaker: "I photographed Epstein, saw he was a bit of a peacock and a cavalier, and put peacock feathers around his head in photographic relief. He was knocked out when he saw the picture. After that, he saw an exhibition of collages I had at the Museum of Modern Art and immediately offered me the position of staff photographer at NEMS, photographing all his artists. I initially turned it down, but after seeing The Beatles perform at Festival Hall I was overwhelmed by all the screaming fans and I decided to accept the offer to return to England ". Whitaker accepted the job three months later, but before he left he spent one final Sunday at the Aspendale beach house of his friends Georges and Mirka Mora, taking a set of historic pictures which were exhibited for the first time in the Monash Gallery of Art's 2003 exhibition of his work. In one photograph, "Aspendale Beach", the Mora family Georges, Mirka and their sons Philippe, William and Tiriel are pictured in slouched, single file on the beach with Martin Sharp and architect Peter Burns. In another photograph, "Goodbye Bob", the same group of people sit holding a sign which reads: "GOD bless thee and keep thee ASPENDALE 1964". On his arrival in England in August 1964, Whitaker set to work photographing the members of the NEMS stable including Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Gerry & The Pacemakers (including cover shots for the How Do You Like It and Ferry Across The Mersey LPs) and Cilla Black (including cover shots for the Cilla and Cilla Sings A Rainbow LPs). He also did several photographs of the hugely successful Australian folk pop group The Seekers, including the cover shots for Seekers Seen In Green (1967); his Seekers photos were also later used for the CDs Live At The Talk Of The Town and The Seekers Complete boxed set and a more recent photo of Judith Durham was used on the cover of her 2001 solo CD Hang On to Your Dream. But it was with The Beatles and especially John Lennon, with whom he became close friends, that Whitaker created his most famous and enduring work. One of his first assignments was photographing The Beatles during their triumphant second American tour, including the historic Shea Stadium concert in New York. He spent the next two years travelling with the Beatles and shooting them at work, at rest and at play—on their tours, at home, in the recording studio, during private moments, and in formal photo sessions. Among his best known images of The Beatles are the album cover photos featured on their 1966 LP Revolver and the compilation album A Collection of Beatles Oldies. With almost unlimited access to the most famous and popular band in the world, Whitaker quickly became a key figure of the London underground scene, capturing "the creativity and excess of London in the sixties". He has been quoted as saying: "There were about 100 people who ran the Sixties" and he was fortunate enough to meet, work with and/or photograph them virtually all of them. As the group's 'court photographer' Whitaker was able to photograph the Fab Four in many moods and situations. He accompanied The Beatles on their 1966 tour of Japan. In Tokyo the tour promoter gave him a Nikon 21mm wide angle lens with which he took numerous shots of The Beatles relaxing in their hotel room at the Tokyo Hilton. These include several photographs of the four at work on a collaborative painting "Images of A Woman", the only such artwork they ever undertook, and a colour photo of the group inspecting antiques, which was used on the back cover of the compilation album A Collection of Beatles Oldies. But without doubt his most celebrated work is the 1966 photo which was appropriated for The Beatles’ (in)famous Yesterday & Today album cover in the USA.

By 1967 The Beatles had withdrawn from touring and during the first half of 1967 they were ensconced in Abbey Rd working on their magnum opus, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club. With the demands of touring now removed, Whitaker's association with The Beatles and NEMS came to an end. By this time he was living and working in a residential studio space which he called Joubert Studios, located in the well known building called The Pheasantry in King's Rd, Chelsea. This venerable artists’ colony was also home to some old friends from Australia—Martin Sharp and Philippe Mora and Germaine Greer. Martin Sharp: "Bob setting to work with The Beatles was a real breakthrough. When Richard Neville and I left for England, Bob was on the top on my list of people to contact." Whitaker's next major project, and one of his most famous collaborations, was created with Sharp—the classic psychedelic album cover for the landmark 1967 LP Disraeli Gears by British supergroup Cream. Whitaker: "Cream were going to do a tour of the north of England and Scotland. I just jumped in a car. Various things presented themselves to us on our journey around Scotland, none of which I could have recreated in a studio. I was very lucky that Martin had discovered day glo paint. I had all the pictures, which I knew were for some form of publicity. I made a whole series of colour prints and Martin just started cutting them up much to my annoyance, because they weren't cheap to do. He then laid them out on a 12 inch square as a piece of finished artwork and then painted all over it." Whitaker's friendship with Martin Sharp and Greer also led to him becoming closely involved with Oz magazine in 1967 68 and he contributed to many of the early editions of the famous underground magazine, including a famous collage depicting a woman seated on a flying toilet symbolically defecating on the British Houses of Parliament.

Whitaker died on 20 September 2011 following a long illness, aged 71. He left a widow and three children.