Terry O'Neill, accidental photographer, on his superstar subjects
Ahead of his first Hong Kong show, the man who photographed the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra, to name a few, tells Stuart Heaver how he became intimate with superstars without being seduced by fame
For five decades, Terry O'Neill's work has graced iconic album sleeves, film posters and magazine covers. Today it hangs in some of the world's most prestigious art venues, including London's National Portrait Gallery.
Endorsed by Michael Caine, close friends with Raquel Welch and once married to Oscar-winning American actress Faye Dunaway, for years he was at the epicentre of the world of celebrity during a golden age. He is arguably most famous for his iconic monochrome images of pop performers, including the Beatles, Eric Clapton and David Bowie.
Now in his 77th year, O'Neill will be in Hong Kong later this month for the first time, to open his inaugural exhibition in the city.
Surprisingly, for a man who has spent most of the past 50 years rubbing shoulders with movie stars, rock icons and international politicians, O'Neill does not give the impression of being a man with an inflated ego.
Talking at his offices in London's Marble Arch, he is dressed more for comfort than impact, in faded jeans and a grey knitted cardigan. He rests one foot on a coffee table and leans back into a plump sofa, as he eases into a number of recollections from those glory days when, to quote a friend of his, former Sunday Times Magazine editor Robin Morgan, "Terry was the go-to guy" for images of the world's rich and famous.
"It was a bloody joke," he's fond of saying in his working-class cockney accent, sounding not unlike English actor Caine, as he describes an accidental meeting with the great train robbers, or being asked to shoot the Beatles while they were recording their debut studio album, Please Please Me, at Abbey Road, in London, one of his first professional assignments.