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For the recent exhibition at Gagosian Beverly Hills, Stefan Beckman brought his signature Beatlemania meets modernism sensibility to Paul McCartney’s installation, Rearview Mirror: Photographs, December 1963 – February 1964. Channeling the spirit of early Beatlemania through a lens of sleek minimalism, Beckman crafted a set design that framed McCartney’s intimate archive with classic noir drama and timeless reverence.
The exhibition, which opened April 25, showcased thirty-six rediscovered photographs from McCartney’s personal trove—unguarded moments captured between Liverpool, London, Paris, and New York, as Beatlemania ignited across continents. The images—sometimes joyful, sometimes raw—offered a rare glimpse of McCartney and his bandmates on the cusp of cultural immortality. There were self-portraits in the quiet before the chaos, glimpses of mobbed hotel entrances, and blurred impressions of America seen through car windows—each a snapshot of a world in rapid transition.
Beckman’s installation echoed the photographs’ immediacy and nostalgia, using restrained materials and spatial rhythm to let the images speak. A monochromatic palette, subtle lighting shifts, and polished surfaces built a cinematic quiet around the prints—giving viewers space to absorb the awe, frenzy, and wonder embedded within. It was a study in set design restraint: theatrical where needed, invisible where it mattered most.
Stefan Beckman is part of Exposure NY’s set and event designer division. Exposure NY is a photography/styling agency based in New York City.
