Astrid Kirchherr, the photographer whose shots of the Beatles helped turn them into icons, has died aged 81.
The Beatles writer Mark Lewisohn confirmed the news on Twitter, posting: “Intelligent, inspirational, innovative, daring, artistic, awake, aware, beautiful, smart, loving and uplifting friend to many. Her gift to the Beatles was immeasurable.”
Beatles photographer Astrid Kirchherr has died aged 81 after suffering a "short, serious illness".She's believed to have passed away in her native Hamburg on Wednesday days before she was due to celebrate her 82nd birthday.
The sad news was confirmed by Beatles writer Mark Lewisohn on Twitter.He wrote: "Danke schön, Astrid Kirchherr. Intelligent, inspirational, innovative, daring, artistic, awake, aware, beautiful, smart, loving and uplifting friend to many.
"Her gift to the Beatles was immeasurable. She died in Hamburg on Wednesday, a few days before turning 82. RIP."
Astrid Kirchherr: Sixty years have passed, since the still underage John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time on July 6th, 1957 in the garden of the St. Peter church in Liverpool Woolton district. A meeting that turned out to be crucial both for the birth of The Beatles and for the European pop culture.
which not only shot the band when it was still at an early stage but also influenced deeply their style, making it what we all know.
Through Kirchherr's photos, the exhibition features the history of The Beatles early years in Hamburg, 
the so called “Hamburg Days”. The German photographer, who was a student at the time and the assistant of the famous photographer Reinhard Wolf, first met The Beatles in 1960 at the Kiserkeller club where the young English bands used to play for few money.
Kirchherr not only took photos of the band when it was still at its beginnings, but also deeply influenced the style of The Beatles introducing them to the existentialist art and literature.
Kirchherr, Voormann and Vollmer were friends who had all attended the Meisterschule, and shared the same ideas about fashion, culture and music.
Voormann became Astrid's boyfriend, and moved into the Kirchherr home, where he had his own room.In 1960, after Kirchherr and Vollmer had had an argument with Voormann.
Voormann walked in and watched a performance by a group called the Beatles: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe and Best, their drummer at the time. Voormann asked Kirchherr and Vollmer to listen to this new music, and after being persuaded to visit the Kaiserkeller (which was in the rough area of the Reeperbahn) Kirchherr decided that all she wanted to do was to be as close to the Beatles as she could.
The trio then visited the Kaiserkeller almost every night, arriving at 9 o'clock and sitting by the front of the stage. Kirchherr later said: "It was like a merry-go-round in my head, they looked absolutely astonishing... My whole life changed in a couple of minutes. All I wanted was to be with them and to know them.
