Terry O’Neill: I Want My Pictures to Tell a Story Not Sell a Story

This week’s Dan’s Papers cover image was taken by late famed British photographer Terry O’Neill the morning after Faye Dunaway had won the Oscar for her role in Network. O’Neill made Dunaway meet him at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s pool at dawn when she probably had just gone to bed hours earlier as he wanted to capture something unique, not the standard, candid celebratory photograph but more the aftermath of what’s next. Most would agree, this is one of his best compositions.

He and Dunaway were together for a decade, eventually marrying but sadly the marriage only lasted five years, unlike this photograph that shall last forever.

O’Neill died in 2019, but the legacy he created continues to intrigue audiences of all ages. He is considered one of the world’s most collected photographers, having shot for over six decades. Starting in the sixties, O’Neill gravitated to the culture of fashion, film and music for muses. His first professional assignment was capturing Laurence Olivier, and capture him he did as Olivier was being helped into a corset for a charity show he was doing. O’Neill went on to title the photograph, “Olivier in Underwear.” It is a perfect example of O’Neill’s snapshot style. Not sure how much Olivier loved the photo — can’t imagine he loved it much, given his gravitas as an actor.

“I’m a reportage photographer, and I just like fading into the background,” O’Neill said. “The more discrete you are, the better off you are.”

O’Neill is credited with chronicling icons of the world in what appear to be unguarded moments like his photograph of former British prime minister Winston Churchill being carried in a chair to an ambulance after being released from the hospital, or Brigitte Bardot taking a break on a movie set in Spain. Of course, the wind gets a little credit for contributing to the sexy, rebellious, masculine yet feminine timeless composition.

Like his picture of Dunaway, even when posed, O’Neill’s photographs have an intimacy to them that makes you think the camera was forgotten, like O’Neill was just a friend who just happened to drop by. Don’t mind me. Ignore what I have in my hand. Everyone seems to be having such a good time. ACDC. Alice Cooper. Sinatra. Clint Eastwood. The only one who doesn’t seem happy is Richard Burton in a shot of him in a bathtub wearing a shower cap, but maybe that was because Burton had a feeling the reviews of the 1969 film Staircase where Burton plays a hairdresser were not going to be so good. And, sadly, he was on point. Or maybe he just hated the ugly shower cap — like there has ever been an attractive shower cap.

“The breadth of the journey that O’Neill captured is beyond compare. To use his own words, ‘I look back at all the pictures and I can’t believe the life I’ve had. They’re all memories for me.’ Memories for O’Neill and wonderful images of the iconic highlights for the rest of us who weren’t there but kind of wish we were,” says The White Room Gallery owners, Andrea McCaffery and Kat O’Neill (no relation) who show his work in East Hampton.

Terry O’Neill often said there was a lot of luck involved in photography which is also true in life, as evidenced in O’Neill’s initial lucky break. As the story goes, he was working at Heathrow Airport in London as part of an airline’s photographic unit — who knew that even existed — when he took a picture of a man sleeping surrounded by African chieftains. The man turned out to Rab Butler, the British Home Secretary at the time. O’Neill had no idea who the man was, but a reporter recognized him, and thus the photo was published in the Sunday Dispatch in 1959, suddenly giving O’Neill the credit of photojournalist. From there the doors opened and Heathrow was looking for a new airline photographer.

O’Neill seemed to have a sixth sense about what would change the world. He shot The Beatles and The Rolling Stones when they were still struggling young bands in the early sixties and is credited for being the first photographer to go backstage and take shots of what it’s like pre and post-performance. Bowie. Clapton. Chuck Berry. Elton. And he then went on to cover Elton John’s amazing ride for the next 40 years with more than 5,000 shots.

“Always a fan of O’Neill, we started partnering with Iconic Images in London to bring O’Neill’s iconic images to the Hamptons as we think photography is the one art that really has its own lane – the chronicle of the old that remains new. Working with Iconic Images has been a very rewarding relationship with O’Neill images and other greats. Dealing in the secondary art market has its moments of reflection, especially with photographers, it conjures up a moment of almost being there, which is honestly beyond compare. Long live the lens which captures it all.” –Andrea McCafferty and Kat O’Neill.

Terry O’Neill and others are on view in Every Picture Tells a Story, a new exhibition through July 13 at The White Room Gallery, 3 Railroad Avenue, in East Hampton. Find more art and info  at thewhiteroom.gallery.