San Diego Magazine / March 2006 / Photo Mania

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Photo Mania

NEW YORK–BASED PHOTOGRAPHER BILL BERNSTEIN has worked for the Village Voice, National Geographic TV, Time and the band U2, among other prestigious clients. But the highlight of his illustrious career has been his long and winding association with Paul McCartney, for whom he was first asked to take some publicity shots before McCartney’s hugely successful Flowers in the Dirt World Tour in 1989. He’s been his photographer ever since, traveling the world and superbly capturing the wit and whimsy of the former Beatle in concert—and in life.

Over the years, Bernstein has strategically chosen to shoot most of the offstage photos of McCartney in grainy black-and-white—because “it just feels right with Paul”—while taking most of the onstage shots in resplendent color. But one non-performance shot he just had to have in color shows McCartney and his entire band at an old beauty salon in a Los Angeles strip mall, soaking their feet in soapy buckets as they sit and read the tabloids. The photograph is reminiscent of the playful, carefree days of the Beatles circa A Hard Day’s Night.

“That’s one of my favorite shots,” says Bernstein, 55, a devoted Beatles fan since he was a teenager. “Believe it or not, that photo wasn’t staged. Paul wanted a manicure, so the whole band went with him to this little hole-in-the-wall on Melrose. When they all stuck their feet in and started soaking, I started shooting.”

That picture and many others are on display at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in La Jolla as part of the North American debut of Bernstein’s work documenting life on tour with McCartney over the past two decades. The exhibit, which features 40 photographs signed by both Bernstein and McCartney, opens March 4 and runs through April 2. Admission is free, and all photos are available for purchase.