Astrid Kirchherr – No. 990

Astrid Kirchherr (born May 20, 1938) is a German photographer and artist and is well known for her association with the Beatles, and her photographs of the band’s original members – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best – during their early days in Hamburg. Kirchherr is credited with inventing the Beatles’ moptop haircut although she disagrees. Kirchherr met artist Sutcliffe in Hamburg in 1960, where he was playing bass with the Beatles, and was later engaged to him, before his death in 1962. Although Kirchherr has taken very few photographs since 1967, her early work has been exhibited around the world, including at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has published three limited-edition books of photographs.

My wife has a special affection for Stuart Sutcliffe and Astrid Kirchherr. As I was creating 8-bit Astrid, I was struck by how random the selection and order of my pixel art characters has been. It’s funny that after 990 characters, the only member of the Beatles I’ve created as pixel art is John Lennon (and that was back in 2011). Though I did create 8-bit Yoko Ono in 2015. This Beatles deficit wasn’t particularly deliberate; I guess I just haven’t yet been inspired to get around to the others. Anyway, here’s Astrid.