Capturing Memories: A Tribute to Terry O'Neill, Legendary Photographer
Första gången jag träffade Terry O`Neill var i London över en lunch. Vi lyckades övertala honom om att hålla en liten ”artist talk ”under en kommande vernissage i Sverige. Väl på vernissagen var han så nervös att han i början inte kunde få fram ett ord. Steffo som intervjuade honom sa – Visst har du en historia bakom porträttet på Sinatra, där han vandrar med sina livvakter? Terry bara tittade ner i golvet och sa, - no, men efter några minuters lirkande var han i gång och jag minns att något hände med honom där. Från att alltid stått bakom kameran fick han vara framför.
Bäst var han när vi hade en pop-up utställning i Stockholm och vi bjöd in elever från en fotoskola. Vi fick höra hisnande roliga historier från några av hans bästa fotografiska stunder. Fotografiska minnen som faktiskt ingen av oss hört tidigare. Kanske för att han där och då med dessa unga människor som delade hans intresse för just fotografiet, kunde vara sig själv och få lov att lära ut något.
Idag bakar jag bröd och funderar på Terry O`Neill, glad och tacksam för att jag fick lära känna honom. Han är och förblir en av de största och bästa fotograferna i vår tid.
Allt Gott! / Nette
The first time I met Terry O'Neill was in London over lunch. We managed to persuade him to hold a small "artist talk" during an upcoming exhibition in Sweden. At the vernissage, he was so nervous that he couldn't get a word out at first. Steffo, who was interviewing him, said, "Surely you have a story behind the portrait of Sinatra, where he walks with his bodyguards?" Terry just looked down at the floor and said, "No," but after a few minutes of coaxing, he got going, and I remember something happened to him there. From always being behind the camera, he got to be in front.
He was at his best when we had a pop-up exhibition in Stockholm and invited students from a photography school. We heard breathtakingly funny stories from some of his best photographic moments. Photographic memories that none of us had heard before. Perhaps because there and then, with these young people who shared his interest in photography, he could be himself and teach something.
Today, I bake bread and think about Terry O'Neill, happy and grateful that I got to know him. He is and will remain one of the greatest and best photographers of our time.
All the best! / Nette
Miami Boardwalk by Terry O’Neill
Singer and actor Frank Sinatra, with his minders and his stand in (who is wearing an identical outfit to him), arriving at Miami beach while filming, 'The Lady in Cement', 1968.
Faye Dunaway by Terry O’Neill
The morning of March 29th, 1977, an iconic image of Hollywood was born.
For every photo you know, there’s likely to be at least a dozen other shots from that same moment. Such is the case with the iconic image of Faye Dunaway.
As Terry O’Neill remembered: “We met a few weeks before and struck up a friendship. She was the odds-on favourite to win an Oscar for her astonishing performance in ‘Network’. I was asked to take a photo of the winner, so I convinced Faye to meet me at the pool first thing next morning.
I didn’t want to take the expected photo; the one with the actor holding the award, moments after, with a stunned expression. I wanted to capture something different. “I somehow convinced Faye to agree.”
As the legend goes, Terry convinced Faye to meet him by the pool at The Beverly Hills Hotel as early as possible the morning after the Academy Awards. True to her word, she appeared on time at the break of dawn having had barely a minute’s sleep. Terry charmed the staff to let them use the pool for an hour and while he scattered the morning’s papers at her feet, all trumpeting her success.
Faye arrived, sat in the chair and placed her golden statue on the table. And with a few snaps, an iconic image was born.
“The other shots are just as interesting. I had her move around the table a bit, asked her to stand up, zoomed out so you could see the palm trees in the distance, and then reclined the chair so she could lie down. She even changed her wardrobe at one point, from her silk dressing gown to a sharp white suit. “I wanted to capture that moment, the morning after.
The idea was to capture that moment when the actor wakes-up and it dawns on them that, overnight, they’ve not only become a star, but their entire life just changed.
“This is that moment of realisation.” / Terry O’Neill
Birgitte Bardot by Terry O’Neill
This iconic image, one of Terry O’Neill’s bestselling fine-art prints. Taken on the set of the film The Legend of Frenchie King (Les Pétroleuses), 1971. O’Neill would often speak about how he managed to capture the moment on film: