Beatles album cover photographer Robert Freeman dead at 82

Photographer Robert Freeman, who helped define the image of The Beatles with some of the band's best-known album covers, has died aged 82.

A statement on The Beatles' official website announced Freeman's death Friday but didn't give a cause.

Born in 1936, Freeman began his career as a photojournalist for London's Sunday Times and captured portraits of leading jazz musicians before working with The Beatles. He shot the black-and-white cover for the 1963 album "With The Beatles," picturing the Fab Four's faces in part-shadow. It became a defining image of the group and was used for the 1964 U.S. album "Meet The Beatles!"

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In an online tribute, Paul McCartney said "people often think that the cover shot for 'Meet The Beatles' of our foreheads in half shadow was a carefully arranged studio shot."

"In fact it was taken quite quickly by Robert in the corridor of a hotel we were staying in where natural light came from the windows at the end of the corridor," McCartney wrote.

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McCartney said Freeman "was one of our favorite photographers during the Beatles years who came up with some of our most iconic album covers."

He called him "imaginative and a true original thinker."

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Freeman went on to photograph the covers of "Beatles For Sale," ''Help!" — with its image of the band members holding semaphore-style flags — and "Rubber Soul."

For that 1965 album Freeman subtly stretched The Beatles' faces, subtly suggesting the psychedelic experiments to come.

Ringo Starr tweeted: "God bless Robert Freeman peace and love to all his family."