cover image Mike Mac's White and Blacks

Mike Mac's White and Blacks

Michael McCartney, Mike McCartney. Studio Books, $12.95 (89pp) ISBN 978-0-14-010251-2

A photographer since childhood, McCartney took pictures of his older brother, Paul, beginning in 1954 and continuing to snap as the Beatles (at the time consisting of John, Paul, George and Pete Best) became the fave rave at Liverpool's Cavern Club. Here he presents 71 of those photographs along with nostalgic and humorous captions. Backstage Beatle shots predominate, and other performers appearincluding Jerry Lee Lewis, actress Jane Asher, Gene Vincent, Rory Storm and Little Richard. The most affecting images are the shots at the McCartney house in the Allerton section of LiverpoolPaul in his wallpapered bedroom grooming for a gig, practicing on a guitar beneath a clothesline heavy with wash, climbing a backyard drainpipe above a trash heap. As Puttnam observes, these snapshots make this book ""a very special time machine.'' (November)