Sunburned, unshaven, relaxed and at ease in their surroundings, Paul Saltzman was witness to the single most creative period in The Beatles history-they wrote 48 songs in less than 8 weeks at the ashram in India. His candid pictures show John, Paul, George and Ringo, four of the most famous people on the planet, away from the stresses of their everyday world: resting, laughing, writing transcendent music that went on to change people's lives, including Saltzman's. This is a unique opportunity to see the real men behind what many people believe is the greatest rock band ever.
  
Saltzman met the Beatles in 1968 at the Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh, India. Saltzman had come to the ashram to learn meditation to heal a broken heart, unaware that the Beatles would be there. The ashram was closed to all visitors and the press but, after camping outside the gates for 8 days, he was finally allowed inside. He was taught meditation, it took 5 minutes, and after a half-hour meditation the agony of his heartbreak was gone-"a miracle", Saltzman says. A few minutes later, he met The Beatles and they welcomed him into their small, intimate group: John, Paul, George, Ringo, their wives, folk singer Donovan, actress Mia Farrow and Mike Love of The Beach Boys.
  
Saltzman's rare photographs artfully present John, Paul, George and Ringo together in complete intimate harmony. Placed in historical perspective, these images witness the burst of creativity enjoyed at the ashram that would carry them into the recording sessions for The White Album - and the beginning of the end of the Beatles as a group.
  
When Saltzman got home to Canada, he put the pictures away in a cardboard box and promptly forgot about them. Thirty years later, Saltzman rediscovered the timeless images and was moved by what he saw. Here were the honest and open faces of four young men at their creative zenith, who shared their life at the ashram-for a brief moment in time-with a 24-year-old who had traveled half way around the world to 'find himself'. In the foothills of the Himalayas, for a week during 1968, the life of Paul Saltzman crossed with the lives of The Beatles.
  
In 2000, Penguin-Putnam published his book The Beatles in Rishikesh. Gallery shows followed in New York, Toronto, London, Paris and Milan, La Jolla , Denver Sweden, Norway, Argentina and elsewhere. In early 2006 Saltzman published a deluxe, fine art Limited Edition book: The Beatles in India, complete with an original CD and DVD, as well as a Limited Edition, museum quality photographic print.
  
"The intimacy of these frames is quite remarkable, some of the best I have seen," says Stephen Maycock, Former Curator for Rock 'n' Roll at Sotheby's auction house in London. "Saltzman's photographs will be welcomed by both fans and historians of The Beatles alike, for these images provide a significant addition to the detail of what is a relatively little-recorded episode in the career of the most important rock group the world has known."
  
For more information on Paul Saltzman and his works visit www.TheBeatlesInIndia.com