The Late Robert Freeman Eternal In The Beatles

Sampul album Help! The Beatles (thebeatles.com)

JAKARTA - Robert Freeman, freelance photographer of The Beatles, died at the age of 82. Freeman has contributed to many of The Fab Four's work. Let's take a look at the late Freeman's work.

Freeman was born in 1938. Early in his career, Freeman worked as a photojournalist for The Sunday Times.

In the 60's, Freeman started working for The Beatles. Help! Album cover so his first project with The Beatles.

It's impossible to deny how cool the cover photo is on the cover of Help !. In the 1965 album, Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, and Starr stand in line, spelling out the letters "help" with semaphore.

After Help !, Freeman's captured images continued to be used by Brian Epstein's foster children. In subsequent albums, Freeman was also the one who created the iconic photos in The Beatles album.

Covers of Beatles for Sale, Rubber Soul, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, as well as various other albums have been recorded by Freeman.

Apart from The Beatles, Freeman has worked for a number of other popular names, from Mohammed Ali, John Coltrane, Charlton Heston, to Andy Warhol.

The announcement of Freeman's death was announced on The Beatles' official Twitter account. It was not clear what caused Freeman's death.

What is clear, all of the deceased's friends also conveyed messages of sorrow. No exception Paul McCartney. On his official website, Paul wrote a message of sorrow:

Dear Robert Freeman has passed away. He was one of our favorite photographers during the Beatles years who came up with some of our most iconic album covers. Besides being a great professional he was imaginative and a true original thinker. People often think that the cover shot for Meet The Beatles of our foreheads in half shadow was a carefully arranged studio shot. In fact it was taken quite quickly by Robert in the corridor of a hotel we were staying in where natural light came from the windows at the end of the corridor. I think it took no more than half an hour to accomplish.

Bob also took the Rubber Soul cover; his normal practice was to use a slide projector and project the photos he'd taken onto a piece of white cardboard which was exactly album sized, thus giving us an accurate idea of how the finished product would look. During his viewing session the card which had been propped up on a small table fell backwards giving the photograph a 'stretched' look. Instead of simply putting the card upright again we became excited at the idea of this new version of his photograph. He assured us that it was possible to print it this way and because the album was titled Rubber Soul we felt that the image fitted perfectly.

I will miss this wonderful man but will always cherish the fond memories I have of him.

Thanks Bob.

Love Paul