Last professional photo ever taken of Brian

[christine~]

Actually, what Tony Bramwell meant to say was, this was the last-ever photo from the last-ever photo SESSION that Brian and his boys were in together.

There were later snapshots taken.

[frulove]

He looks really good in that picture

Do you by any chance have those snapshots? I'd like to see them.

[christine~]

In my boot DVD of the BBC Arena special, The Brian Epstein Story, the camera pans past snapshots a lot.
I tried my best to click digital images from my TV screen:



The color image, when enlarged, refused to clean up well,
so I was forced to monochrome it for clarity:



In one snapshot they flashed on the screen,
Brian was apparently wearing the same outfit
and holding the same beer as in the photo
(from the book) directly below this one, so I
would guess it's from the same batch of Nat's:


A few pictures owned by his best friend Nat Weiss are found in Ray Coleman's The Man Who Made The Beatles.






Snapshot I found on eBay but was unable to afford, looks like it was from the same batch.
Does this mean that Nat's other shots were also in colour? (!)

[yerblues1968]

I really appreciate these last three snapshots. They seem so personal to me as he looks so very relaxed, a side of himself the public rarely sees. In retrospect, he probably wished he had more time to sleep but could not with his demanding schedule. He was always "on the go" and really needed to relax and "let his hair down." These images are among my favorites as it shows a different dimension of him; not having to think about the stress of work, not having to worry about how to dress around the public, not having to worry about time--just let go and be himself without worry of being judged. Nevertheless, he looks handsome of a man here. This is a very treasured photograph by whoever took it--a very personal photograph of Brian Epstein. He looks as if he was personally photographed just for you. Lying there, looking at you. On the roof of his home. If only the public knew how tirelessly he worked to bring us The Beatles, the lack of sleep that he got. He knew his life was forever changed. Now, he is gone and is finally having his rest. Thank you for the photographs. I probably hate to say this, but these photographs make me cry.

[christine~]

You're a real sweetheart, John. Thank you for saying that.
There are a few pics of him that have had that effect on me, too.
And I'm not a crying type of person, generally.

[Emily]

I've been pondering those last photos, and I think if I didn't know the context in which they were taken, I would say that he looks happy and relaxed. "Unkempt," possibly, but then we don't know, do we, whether there were other casual photos taken of him that we've just never seen simply because they weren't taken right before he died? I'm wondering whether the term "debilitated" is one that you can really only use with 20-20 hindsight.

It's interesting to note also that the English weather was just as fickle then as it is now. In the picture with Nat Weiss, Brian is in a woolly jumper and a heavy jacket (Nat's? It looks way too big for him). Only a few days later, he's soaking up the sun in an open shirt. Having lived in England for eight years, I know the feeling.