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Paul McCartney's photo exhibit debuts at the AGO
If you’ve ever wondered what Beatlemania looked like from the inside, here’s your chance. Until June 7, 2026, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto is presenting the Canadian debut of Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm, an exhibition of more than 250 photos McCartney snapped between December 1963 and the spring of 1964. It’s a three-month period that marked the Beatles’ transition to global phenomenon from British fame.
Curated by McCartney with Sarah Brown for MPL Communications and Rosie Broadley for the National Portrait Gallery and organized for the AGO by curator Jim Shedden, the chronological exhibit culminates in the Fab Four’s famous appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Taken on McCartney’s 35-mm Pentax SLR camera, the photos include images that appear oddly cropped or blurry.
“We were moving at such speed that you just had to grab, grab, grab!” McCartney wrote in his associated book, 1964: Eyes of the Storm. “We’ve got some very sharp pictures, and we’ve got some more romantic photos with that softness that really captures the time.”
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After that intense three-month period, the group returned to North America for 32 shows, including two at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens.
In fact, the Beatles’ time in Toronto is highlighted in this exhibit — a feature exclusive to its AGO engagement. Those photos and artifacts come largely from Canadian Beatles historian Piers Hemmingsen. Indeed, the show closes with an image of McCartney on a flight to New York from Toronto, reading a copy of the Toronto Star.
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