Terry O‘Neill

Terry O'Neill © Misan Harriman / Iconic Images

United Kingdom | 1938–2019

„I’ve had a wonderful life! It all happened
so quickly and it was all so carefree.
To be honest, we all thought it was going to
come to a screeching halt. We’d meet up
in clubs, with the Beatles and the Stones,
and we’d all talk about the jobs we were
going to get when it was all over! We never
thought it would last. If my photos are so
popular, it’s because they all tell a story.
I’m a storyteller who uses pictures.“

Terry O’Neill

This is a fantasised London. The one we wish we’d known, the bubbling, heightened, delirious world of the early 1960s. Born in 1938, Terry O’Neill experienced it like none other. The boy, who dreamed of being a drummer in a jazz club, then planned to become an air steward so that he could travel to the United States and study the most prominent figures of African-American music. As fate would have it, he met the art of photography along the way. At the time, rock‘n’roll was sweeping the world − including Europe. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were eager to break with the traditional image of a music band, of how they promoted themselves and how they performed. They wanted something more natural, more relaxed, more abrasive, and less conventional. And Terry O’Neill was the man for the job, becoming one of the key witnesses of a musical and societal revolution in the process.

His style was direct and spontaneous. He was unafraid to ask his models to pose in unexpected places, or to capture more relaxed moments. If this, today, is perfectly normal, it was groundbreaking at the time. Medias from all over the world, from Vogue to Paris Match, fought over his work. Some of his photographs even played a significant role in shaping the ever-lasting identity of some artists – think David Bowie’s glam, Elton John’s electrifying energy, Mick Jagger’s pouting lips, all legends who have ultimately gone down in history. At a time when photography was (already) the best way to create a myth, he transformed these musicians into icons. O’Neill’s images are on permanent display in many museums and you can’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia when contemplating his shots. 

We might wonder whether there will ever be another era of such creative freedom and cultural revolution again, spawning so many giants. If so, we can only hope that a photographer of Terry O’Neill’s calibre would be there to immortalise it.