May 16, 2011 - 17:06 AMT
Tom Murray’s Beatles photos available for public purchase

For almost 30 years, renowned photographer Tom Murray’s images from The Beatles last group publicity shoot were stored in the back of a drawer. And now for the first time ever, these rarely seen images will be available for public purchase on an international art site. Rock Paper Photo, which launches this week in New York, will be the most comprehensive online gallery of pop culture fine art photography, artdaily reports.

Founded by Guy Oseary (Madonna’s manager) and with investment from Live Nation, the site deals exclusively in largely unpublished hand signed limited edition images.

Tom Murray is an award-winning photographer whose work spans portraiture, theater, fashion, advertising, newspapers and magazines. He then worked alongside master photographers Helmut Newton and Lord Snowdon. At 25, he received a commission from the Royal Family, becoming the youngest person to receive this honor, and has since immortalized subjects such as Elizabeth Taylor, Angelica Huston, Dustin Hoffman, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.

In the summer of 1968, Murray was invited to a publicity photo shoot for a popular rock and roll group by a fellow photographer. As it turned out, the band that they were shooting was The Beatles.

A three time World Press Photo award winner, Murray has received numerous international awards for his work on newspaper and magazine assignments, theatre and advertising commissions as well as specialist portrait commissions in Europe, Africa and the U.S.