'Meeting Jürgen Vollmer was a very important event in my life and the lives of the other Beatles. His sense of style and excellent photographic skills were to have a profound effect throughout our careers.' – Paul McCartney
In 1960, three young German art-school friends – Klaus Voormann, Astrid Kirchherr and Jürgen Vollmer – encountered an unknown Liverpool group performing in Hamburg’s Reeperbahn district. The creative exchange between these two circles would help shape the visual identity of The Beatles at the very beginning of their story.
Three decades later, celebrating his contribution to the iconography of The Beatles, Genesis worked with Jürgen to create From Hamburg to Hollywood. Featuring a foreword by Paul McCartney, Jürgen's signed, limited edition book contains all 45 frames of The Beatles taken at this time and also looks back over his life's work. Included within the limited edition boxed sets were original photographic prints – made from the Hamburg negatives and signed by Jürgen.
Today, as the edition nears its end, these Hamburg prints have taken on a life of their own. What began as an accompaniment to the book has become, over time, a highly prized artwork in its own right – an original photographic study of The Beatles before worldwide recognition.
Each copy of From Hamburg to Hollywood originally included a single photographic print, made from the Hamburg negatives and hand-signed by Jürgen Vollmer. For the first time since publication, Genesis has created the Complete Hamburg Portfolio, bringing together all four Hamburg prints.
Only 30 Complete Hamburg Portfolios have been created, with fewer than ten now remaining.
Taken at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg in 1961, the four prints reproduce portraits of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, plus a Group Portrait of the band. Produced in the mid-1990s from the original Hamburg negatives using traditional darkroom techniques, each print:
• measures approximately 8" x 6" and is printed on gloss photographic paper
• is signed by Jürgen Vollmer in the margin
• is unnumbered, but limited by the finite number made at the time
Following the original project, Jürgen’s archive was acquired, and no further signed prints from these negatives can be produced. The prints included with From Hamburg to Hollywood now represent a closed, historic body of work.
Over the thirty years since they were made, these Hamburg images have come to be viewed by collectors as independent artworks – early, atmospheric portraits of The Beatles on the brink of fame, signed by the photographer who was there.
From Hamburg to Hollywood is limited to 1,750 signed and numbered copies worldwide.
Today, the individual portraits of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and the Group Portrait have now all sold out. Genesis is continuing to offer the final Complete Hamburg Portfolios – the last remaining form of this historic edition.
Taken five years before The Beatles returned to Germany in 1966, at the height of Beatlemania and on their final world tour, Vollmer’s photographs preserve a very different moment: The Beatles before stadiums, before worldwide recognition, and before the mythology had fully formed around them.
Once these remaining sets are placed:
• no further signed prints will ever be issued from the Hamburg negatives
• no further Complete Hamburg Portfolios will be assembled
• the edition will become fully subscribed
Jürgen Vollmer’s signed book remains an essential companion to the prints – a carefully constructed record of the photographs, the moment, and the life behind them.
From Hamburg to Hollywood is a retrospective of Jürgen Vollmer’s life and work, told through his own design, stories and photographs. It spans his early days with The Beatles in Hamburg, his time in Paris, his years in New York and Hollywood, and his return to Hamburg decades later, with written contributions by Paul McCartney and Klaus Voormann.
Each copy is:
• hand-signed by Jürgen Vollmer
• individually numbered, from an edition of 1,750
• quarter-bound, with silver-edged pages
• presented in a custom box designed by the photographer
Together, the book and photographs form a single coherent archival work – preserving one of the most important visual records of The Beatles before global fame transformed them forever.
Edition limited to 30 sets.
For the first time since publication, Genesis has brought together all four surviving Hamburg photographs within a single archival edition – uniting the complete sequence of Jürgen Vollmer’s Beatles portraits from Hamburg, 1961.
Each Complete Hamburg Portfolio includes:
• all four signed Beatles photographs
• signed and numbered edition of From Hamburg to Hollywood
• handmade presentation case
• signed by Jürgen Vollmer
Produced directly from Vollmer's original Hamburg negatives using traditional darkroom techniques, the photographs capture The Beatles during their formative Hamburg residencies – years before global fame transformed them into the most recognised group in popular music.
Today, the Complete Hamburg Portfolio represents the definitive archival edition.
Once these remaining sets are placed, the edition will finally pass into private collections and archives.
Fewer than 10 sets remain.
Select from the following copies:
Beginning with recollections of his time with The Beatles in Hamburg in 1960, moving to Paris and an influential meeting with John and Paul, Jürgen Vollmer goes on to recount his experience of 1970s New York, life in Hollywood, and his return to Hamburg 30 years later.
Since 1974 Genesis has created signed limited edition books on behalf of authors and artists ranging from the Beatles to Buckingham Palace.
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+44 (0)1483 540970
Genesis House, 2 Jenner Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 3PL, England
