Beatles Photos From First US Concert Fetch $360,000 at Auction

Mike Mitchell was just 18 when he took photographs of the Beatles' first US concert. Little did he know, the images which have spent half a century in his basement would earn more than $360,000 (£223,200) at Christie's auction house this week.

The young photographer, now 65, took snaps of the band in 1964 when they first arrived in Washington D.C., then followed them to their first news conference and concert. According to the Belfast Telegraph, the 50 prints were estimated to fetch $100,000 (£62,000), but the sale exceeded expectations -- one stunning backlit image of the Fab Four from behind made $68,000 (£42,000) alone.

"It was a long time ago. Things weren't that way then," Mr. Mitchell said when he described the historic scene. "It was as low-tech as the concert itself. The concert was in a sports venue and the sound system was the sound system of a sports venue."

Remarkably, very few photos from the concert still exist, according to Wales Online. Christie's pop culture consultant Simeon Lipman said it was unclear why so few exist, but he praised the photographs for their "animated" and "intimate" depiction of the band.

Mr Mitchell might have kept the negatives in his basement for decades, but he says the final silver gelatin prints benefitted from digital technology, which allowed him to do "much better darkroom work that could ever have been done in a traditional darkroom."