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" &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s a lot of pictures in this book, shots of &amp;#039;the boys&amp;#039; that only I could have taken,&amp;quot; Ringo Starr writes in the introduction to his deluxe, limited-edition new book Photograph, which has already sold out, but which you can check out here. He&amp;#039;s right. This is The Beatles from the inside out. There&amp;#039;s a relaxed intimacy throughout the more than 250 images \u2014 most of fellow Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, as well as confidantes like the band&amp;#039;s manager Brian Epstein, producer George Martin, and roadies Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans \u2014 that even photographers with unfettered access to the Fab Four like Dezo Hoffman and Bob Freeman, or even Linda McCartney, could not have captured. In fact, Hoffman, Freeman, and Mrs. McCartney even appear in some of Starr&amp;#039;s photos.  &amp;quot;I always enjoyed taking pictures,&amp;quot; says Starr. &amp;quot;At one time [all The Beatles] had cameras. That&amp;#039;d be an interesting thing, if everyone collected my photos, Paul&amp;#039;s photos, John&amp;#039;s photos, and George&amp;#039;s photos. We could have a book called The Beatles Photos. Just an idea.&amp;quot; For now, we&amp;#039;ll have to settle for the signed Photograph and a similarly gorgeous series of prints, both from Genesis Publications, the high-end UK publisher that began its relationship with The Beatles when it published George Harrison&amp;#039;s autobiography I Me Mine in 1980 and that also handled Starr&amp;#039;s 2004 book Postcards from the Boys, which included, well, postcards from John, Paul, and George. And it&amp;#039;s all for Starr&amp;#039;s charity The Lotus Foundation. Here&amp;#039;s a sampling of some of the coolest shots from Photograph, many exclusive to Esquire.com, with thoughts on each from the man John Lennon called &amp;quot;the best drummer in rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; roll.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s the first ever shot of me playing at the Cavern. These are not my drums. The snare and the sticks would have been mine, but I never had a white kit.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;Here we are at Butlins. When we went to [the &amp;#039;holiday camp&amp;#039; in England called] Butlins [with first band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes], we all changed our names. I was being called &amp;#039;Rings&amp;#039; in Liverpool, because I wore a lot of rings, so I became &amp;#039;Ringo Starkey.&amp;#039; But that didn&amp;#039;t really work, so I just took the &amp;#039;-key&amp;#039; off and called myself &amp;#039;Ringo Starr.&amp;#039; This is Johnny Guitar \u2014 Johnny was like the first Jimi Hendrix in my life. I thought he was incredible. Ty O&amp;#039;Brien, Lu Walters, and Rory Storm. So that&amp;#039;s how it happened that my name has been Ringo ever since.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;I love this shot, but it may not mean a lot to anyone but me. Besides the fact that John has his glasses off, he is sitting in a typical &amp;#039;him&amp;#039; pose. He had this weird way of sitting. The knee could go down to the floor and the leg right up to his shoulder! John and his fabulous loose hips. It&amp;#039;s far out, isn&amp;#039;t it? I can&amp;#039;t do it. All you people reading this out there \u2014 can you do it? It&amp;#039;s a competition.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;Paul looks very French. It was very weird when we first went to Paris to play. We were used to screaming girls and Paris was full of boys. It was a very deep scream, which was really noticeable to us.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s George wearing one of Murray the K&amp;#039;s T-shirts. He broke The Beatles in America by playing our record on his Submarine Race Watchers show. He talked in a very weird language, which we couldn&amp;#039;t understand, but it seemed like everyone in New York did. He came on that tour from New York to Washington and to Florida with us. We have to thank him. He was a great guy.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;Wow, we&amp;#039;re in America! This is how we saw most of the world when it got big for The Beatles, out of a car window, going to or leaving somewhere. That&amp;#039;s just how it was. You had to get to the gig, and then get away from the gig or to wherever you were going to next. You&amp;#039;ll find several of the shots in this book are from my point of view, looking out of a car window.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;Paul and me. It&amp;#039;s on a timer, which is why we&amp;#039;re looking strange. Timer shots are always weird because you don&amp;#039;t know when it&amp;#039;s going to go.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;We went fishing. John, Cynthia [John&amp;#039;s first wife], Maureen [Ringo&amp;#039;s first wife], and I were on holiday in Tobago. We went fishing. That&amp;#039;s just what we did when we went on holiday.&amp;quot;   On vacation with John: &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s the little pieces and the money that we used to play Monopoly.&amp;quot;    &amp;quot;Substances came into play in the sixties. I used to make my own slides, with oil, water, and colored liquid. I would put them in a projector and the heat would start them moving, like it does in a lava lamp. Then I would project them, really big, onto the wall. I also did quite a bit of projecting onto people. When we were filming the song &amp;#039;Blue Jay Way&amp;#039; for Magical Mystery Tour, we ended up in my living room with me projecting images onto Goerge. John was on my son&amp;#039;s rocking horse, which just shows that you didn&amp;#039;t have to get fancy to make good video.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;Here&amp;#039;s a fisheye. I love this one. My son Zak was about three here, and Jason had just been born. I&amp;#039;d left the band because I couldn&amp;#039;t stand it anymore. Peter Sellers lent me his yacht, and we went off and had a holiday in Sardinia. That&amp;#039;s when I wrote &amp;#039;Octopus&amp;#039;s Garden.&amp;#039; Jason was a baby, and Stella, the nanny, was holding him as we walked through this pool. She said to me, &amp;#039;Take the baby,&amp;#039; so I took the baby, and she had an octopus wrapped around her leg! If it had been me, I would have tossed the baby and run, but she was so good. It&amp;#039;s not going to kill you, but I wouldn&amp;#039;t like to be somewhere and have something wrap itself around my leg! We took a photo of the octopus, and then I ended up writing a song about him.&amp;quot;   Ringo at home: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m still wearing all the rings, and this is the St. Francis necklace that my auntie got me, which was ripped off in New York. That necklace has a story. My auntie bought it for me, but when we were in New York, kids jumped on our backs and stole it. I went on [local DJ] Cousin Brucie&amp;#039;s radio show and said, &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;ll give you a kiss if you bring me back my necklace.&amp;#039; A girl turned up with the necklace, so I gave her a kiss, and I&amp;#039;ve still got it. The fans didn&amp;#039;t really attack us a lot, so these kids just got lucky. We would go out quite a bit, in those days, but it would start getting really crazy later on.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;The best All-Starr Band was in 1989. It was special because it was the first lineup. I had sobered up and I was sitting around, wondering what to do with myself. I wasn&amp;#039;t thinking of putting a band together. The first light went on when I remembered that I&amp;#039;m a musician. I&amp;#039;d become so derelict, for all those years, that I&amp;#039;d forgotten that. And then, out of the blue, a guy who I didn&amp;#039;t know called me and said, &amp;#039;Pepsi wants to put you on tour.&amp;#039; I thought, &amp;#039;Sure, but I&amp;#039;m going to take a lot of people with me.&amp;#039; I was so insecure because I&amp;#039;d never toured on my own before. I just opened my phone book and called these people, and they all said, &amp;#039;Yes.&amp;#039; Joe Walsh is family [he&amp;#039;s married to Ringo&amp;#039;s wife Barbara Bach&amp;#039;s sister Marjorie] and a great guitarist; Nils Lofgren was always there and a really good friend; Levon Helm has left us now. He&amp;#039;s gone and we&amp;#039;re still here, still doing it. That&amp;#039;s the game. We also had Jim Keltner, Dr. John, Clarence Clemons, Billy Preston, and Rick Danko. It was incredible.&amp;quot; --  Ringo Starr&amp;#039;s Photograph is limited to 2,500 signed copies. There is also a series of museum-quality photographic prints showcasing Ringo&amp;#039;s camera work. Created in small artist editions of only 25 numbered copies, each proof is checked and each print is signed by Ringo Starr. Find out more at genesis-publications.com.  Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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