George Harrison Photo Book ‘The Third Eye’ Coming in October With Unreleased Song

Curated by Olivia Harrison, the collection spans the Beatles’ rise to global fame and includes a never-before-released recording in its deluxe edition.

A new book collecting more than 200 photographs taken by George Harrison during the Beatles years will be published on October 8 via Ebury Spotlight. Titled ‘The Third Eye: Early Photographs,’ the volume gathers images Harrison shot between 1963 and 1969, many of them previously unpublished, and has been compiled and curated by his widow, Olivia Harrison.

What ‘The Third Eye’ Contains

The collection draws on Harrison’s personal photographs and 8mm film stills documenting the Beatles’ ascent to global fame. The images span the band’s first trip to the United States through travels to Paris, Australia, Miami, Rishikesh and Tahiti, offering an intimate view of one of rock history’s most documented yet endlessly revisited eras.

Olivia Harrison wrote in an accompanying essay that she wants to show people, from George’s unique photographic perspective during the Beatles’ early years, ‘that moment when the whole of your life is ahead of you with unknowable possibilities.’ She added that the images capture ‘that spirit that George’s life possessed.’

The book will also feature an introduction by author Colm Tóibín and an afterword by Booker Prize-winning novelist George Saunders, lending the project a literary weight that positions it as more than a standard rock memorabilia release.

Deluxe Edition Details

Alongside the standard hardback, a limited deluxe edition will be available. It features a cloth-bound, foil-stamped book housed in a specially designed case, four photo prints, and signed, numbered cards from Olivia Harrison.

The headline addition to the deluxe package is a seven-inch vinyl pressing of a never-before-released song recorded by George Harrison. No further details about the recording have been disclosed, but for collectors and Harrison devotees, the prospect of unheard material from the Beatles period carries obvious significance. Harrison’s solo and Beatles-era vault has been mined carefully over the decades, making any genuinely new release a notable event.

Broader Beatles Moment

The announcement arrives during a period of unusually concentrated Beatles activity. Director Sam Mendes is currently developing a four-part biopic project titled ‘The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event,’ with each film told from the perspective of one band member. The films are due in April 2028.

Joseph Quinn is set to portray Harrison in the project, with Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. The supporting cast includes Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd, Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey. No casting has been confirmed for Olivia Harrison, who met George in the 1970s and married him in 1978.

Pattie Boyd, Harrison’s first wife, recently noted that no one connected to the biopics had contacted her despite Wood being cast to play her. ‘I could have really told them great stories,’ Boyd said. McCartney, for his part, called Mescal ‘very cute’ while joking that the actor ‘might do a good job’ playing him.

Fans also recently marked the first official Global Beatles Day on June 25, and long-lost footage of the band’s 1964 Top of the Pops performance was recovered after more than 60 years. A new official fan destination, ‘The Beatles At 3 Savile Row,’ is set to open in London in 2027 at the band’s former Apple Corps headquarters, the site of their famous 1969 rooftop concert.

What we know

• ‘The Third Eye: Early Photographs’ will be published on October 8 via Ebury Spotlight.
• The book collects more than 200 photographs taken by George Harrison between 1963 and 1969, many published for the first time.
• The collection was compiled and curated by Olivia Harrison, George’s widow.
• The book features an introduction by Colm Tóibín and an afterword by Booker Prize-winning novelist George Saunders.
• A limited deluxe edition includes a cloth-bound foil-stamped book, a seven-inch vinyl of a never-before-released George Harrison song, four photo prints, and signed numbered cards from Olivia Harrison.
• Sam Mendes is developing a four-part Beatles biopic with Joseph Quinn as George Harrison; the films are due in April 2028.

The take

George Harrison spent much of his Beatles career in the shadow of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, yet his photographic work adds another dimension to an already layered legacy. Harrison was a serious and curious observer, and the fact that he documented the band’s travels so extensively from 1963 onward means this archive carries genuine historical weight, not just sentimental value. Olivia Harrison has been a careful steward of that legacy since his death in 2001, overseeing projects like the ‘Living in the Material World’ documentary and the reissue campaigns that recontextualized his solo work for new audiences. Her curatorial hand on ‘The Third Eye’ suggests the book will be presented with the same intentionality. The inclusion of an unreleased recording in the deluxe edition follows a well-established pattern for premium archival releases, but given how thoroughly Harrison’s catalog has been examined over the years, any genuinely new audio is a meaningful addition. The timing also matters: with the Mendes biopic generating sustained conversation about how each Beatle’s story gets told, a book that presents Harrison’s own visual perspective offers a counterweight to whatever cinematic interpretation arrives in 2028. It lets Harrison, in a sense, frame his own narrative.

Why it matters

For Beatles fans and rock history enthusiasts, ‘The Third Eye’ represents a rare primary-source document: images selected and shot by Harrison himself, not by a hired photographer or a press agency. That distinction matters. Most Beatles photography from this era was produced for commercial or editorial purposes; Harrison’s personal archive reflects what he actually chose to look at. Paired with an unreleased recording, the project gives collectors and scholars material that genuinely expands the historical record rather than repackaging what already exists.

What’s next

‘The Third Eye: Early Photographs’ is scheduled for release on October 8. The Sam Mendes four-part Beatles biopic is due in April 2028, and ‘The Beatles At 3 Savile Row’ fan destination is set to open in London in 2027.

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