Elite Traveler January-February 2017

INSPIRE THE BIG INTERVIEW

Think of an iconic image from the 1960s and there is a fair chance that Terry O’Neill took the picture. As one of a quartet of unofficial court photographers, alongside Terence Donovan, David Bailey and Patrick Lichfield, O’Neill helped shape the popular myth of “swinging London” in the 1960s. He went on to take Hollywood by storm, enjoying unparalleled access to celebrities as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Brigitte Bardot and Audrey Hepburn, as well as capturing the developing careers of rock and pop legends such as David Bowie. O'Neill effectively helped give birth to the modern concept of celebrity. After a few failed attempts to meet up (he was unwell at the time), we eventually communicate via email, over which modern medium he’s clearly unimpressed with the way the modern world has changed celebrity culture since his heyday. The biggest difference, he says, is the lack of direct access. “It’s a joke now, isn’t it?” he asks. “There are 50 managers, 50 PRs, 50 retouches and 50 approvals. None of that was happening when I started. I worked with the subject directly and that’s why the photos from that time – mine and other people’s – are special. You just can’t get that sort of access today and we’re missing out on a lot because of it.” To illustrate his point, he tells the story of his time with Frank Sinatra, then at the height of his powers and one of the most famous – and arguably most powerful – men in America. “I knew Ava Gardner a bit, having worked with her on a few of her films. So when I had the invitation to take photos of Sinatra on-set, I told Ava and she wrote a letter, sealed it and said: ‘Give this to Frank.’ I went down to Miami and as I was sitting there waiting for the filming to start, here comes the man himself, surrounded by these giant bodyguards – a real entourage. I wondered what I had got myself into. I went up to him and said: ‘Mr Sinatra, Miss Gardner asked me to give this to you.’ He took the letter, read it, looked at me and announced: ‘Boys, he’s OK, he’s with me.’ After that, we worked together for 30 years and he let me go anywhere with him to take photos. It was a real honor. I never did find out what was in that letter.” There is an excellent picture taken just before this meeting, with Sinatra and his bodyguards (along with a stunt double just ahead of Sinatra). It displays perfectly O’Neill’s uncanny knack for capturing what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment.” In O’Neill’s case this is often a moment that somehow manages to define a celebrity. Sometimes these were staged, studio moments and sometimes “found.” Perhaps the most famous example is O’Neill’s picture of Bardot, with the wind blowing her hair across her face. This is also the moment when O’Neill says he felt he arrived as a photographer, when he knew this was something he would be good at. “After a while, you take photos, develop them and you start to see what works and what doesn’t. It was after years of photographing that I understood about waiting for the photo to happen. It is really hard to say when it fell into place, but I think it was the Bardot shot. We were all standing there, waiting for the filming to start – this was on a film set – and I saw the wind kept blowing her hair in her face and she’d brush it away. It was the first time I remember actually thinking ‘that would be a great shot if I could capture that moment’ when her hair was across her face and before she brushed it away. Knowing I was running out of film, I had to wait for it to happen. It took days for me to get the film developed to find out if I did actually get the shot I wanted – and I did. That shot is probably one of my best known now. I’m proud of that one. But it is always a bit of a combination of patience and luck.” If all this celebrity high-life sounds like a magical, gilded life, that is because it was and O’Neill himself is clear that is the way it felt. The most common summary of O’Neill’s career and place in the line-up of great photographers is that he was just in the right place at the right time, got lucky and did well. O’Neill himself has few pretentions about his impact as a photographer. And he agrees that London in the 1960s was the right place and time.

Bowie – Diamond Dogs “David Bowie brought in the dog, but as soon as it started to jump and bark at the strobe light I knew, if I could get it mid-air, it would be terrific. Everyone on set was terrified; luckily I was behind the camera and David didn’t even flinch.” The Book “This is my tribute to David Bowie…We wanted to create something extraordinary.”

Photos: Terry O'Neill