Interview 25
Photography News Issue 22 absolutephoto.com
Terry on seeing flaws
I always see flaws. I see them in every shot I’ve taken. Take that one of Sinatra (below). I often thought I could have got in closer, but I didn’t because I was already focused and waiting for him to come around the corner. I’ve always wondered if I’d have waited one more step whether that would have been a better picture, I’ll never know… it’s just that slightly empty area at the bottom. It drives me mad but people don’t even notice. And I can’t crop it without losing the shape. Brigitte Bardot with the cigar (right) is probably the most perfect one. I love that, that’s a great crop.
I never even realised until about ten years ago when I looked at my library what a fantastic life I was involved in
you blowup the picture it’s the entire negative, it’s not just little bits of it.
You were an early adopter of 35mm kit. Do you think using certain types of camera were a big part of your success? I started on an Agfa Selecta which was a cheap, heavy little 35mm camera. Even when I was at the airport I was doing all these pictures on this thing, but it did the job. Before 35mm, portraits were all about studios and special lighting; 35mm brought the candid look because you could carry your camera anywhere and you had 36 shots in the tank, and more in your pocket. I don’t have that camera anymore; all my cameras have been stolen over the years, so I just rent them now. Actually, I don’t really like cameras; it’s your brain that takes the picture, but people think it’s the camera. The skill is to get that idea through the lens, to shape it with this instrument. But really it’s all about your brain. I try and explain this to people and they don’t understand what I’m talking about. I know exactly what you mean; people obsess about kit, rather than prioritising creativity. It’s a big hang up. It gets in the way. Peter Sellers was photography mad, every new camera that came out, he had to buy. Terry Donovan was the same. I’ve never understood it. It’s like digital cameras; I’ve used them, but I don’t like them. It’s not photography to me; everyone’s glued to a screen when they should be concentrating on the pictures. A picture is a moment and you’ve got to be ready, so stop looking at your camera! When I go to a premiere and I see these guys and they say ‘oh wait a minute while I look through the shots’, I mean, it’s a joke. When it happened, the celebrity thing was meteoric. You were working with the biggest names in the world. It must have felt amazing. Ker Robertson, who was assistant editor on the Daily Sketch also ran a pop programme on TV called Cool for Cats , and because I was the youngest photographer inFleet Street, hewantedme to shoot these bands. He sent me down to Abbey Road and it was The Beatles recording ‘Please Please Me’. So I sort of started at the top and never looked back. It was incredible.
Above Often cited as Terry’s most iconic image, this shot of Brigitte Bardot is permanently hung in The National Portrait Gallery: “I only had one frame left – one shot at it. But suddenly the wind swept her hair across her face, and it was a knockout”
But there was a moment when you had to leave the paper and go solo. What triggered it? I’d become known for finding new faces and at the same time, I got fed up with the newspaper because I felt I was intruding on people. I covered an air crash in Norway and came back to do the funeral the next week. I went down to Croydon and I’ll always remember this all my life, there were more than 100 kids killed in a plane crash, there was stone cold silence in this thing and I thought I can’t do this anymore, it’s the final straw. Anyway, I went and told the editor that I’m going to have to leave and he says ‘the day youwalk out of here you’re finished’. I sort of shit myself then and I went home and rang every contact I had and I was back in the papers next week like I’d never been away. I’ve had all the luck in the world, believe me. Being around all those stars, part of the set in a way, and still getting your job done, did you have to adapt your style? I never even realised until about ten years ago when I looked at my library what a fantastic life I was involved in. I just didn’t. I hate being famous and I hate being known, and I realised a long time ago, that’s what made me a good photographer: just to be there and fade into the background; don’t engage people in conversation, just observe. That was my final polishing up of my technique.
Above Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, shot in 1975, at the height of Moore’s Hollywood success. Terry O’Neill enjoyed unprecedented access to the biggest stars of the day, creating decades of intimate images full of humour and candid moments.
iconicimages.net
Powered by FlippingBook