Terry O'Neill

Art Brokerage: Terry O'Neill English Photographer: b. 1938. Terry O'Neill (born 30 July 1938) is an English photographer. He gained renown documenting the fashions, styles, and celebrities of the 1960s. O'Neill's photographs display his knack for capturing his subjects candidly or in unconventional settings. His work has also been featured in numerous exhibitions. He was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary medal 'in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography' in 2011. Terry began his career working in a photographic unit for an airline at London's Heathrow Airport. During this time, he photographed a sleeping figure in a waiting area who, by happenstance, was revealed to be Britain's Home Secretary. O'Neill thereafter found further employment on Fleet Street with The Daily Sketch in 1959. His first professional job was photographing Laurence Olivier. In addition to photographing the decade's show-business elite such as Judy Garland, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he also photographed members of the British Royal Family and prominent politicians, showing a more natural and human side to these subjects than had usually been portrayed before. Terry O'Neill's iconic photographs of Elton John are among his most well-known. A selection of them appeared in the 2008 book, Eltonography. Also considered among his most famous images are a series of shots showing American actress Faye Dunaway (his girlfriend at the time) at dawn on 29 March 1977, lounging next to the swimming pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel the morning after winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Network, with several newspapers scattered around her and her Oscar statuette prominently shown on a table beside her breakfast tray.The series was photographed in both color and black & white. One black & white from the series hangs in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. O'Neill was also credited (as Terrence O'Neill) as an executive producer of the 1981 film Mommie Dearest. His only other film credit was for still photography for the 1987 film, Aria. An exhibition featuring his photography of Elton John and Frank Sinatra was also featured at the San Francisco Art Exchange in San Francisco from July to August in 2009. A 2010 exhibition titled Terry O'Neill, Reworked, took a unique direction with Terry's photographs. Six artists were given their choice of the photographer's imagery to re-work as they wished. O'Neill made an appearance on British television with a selection of featured interpretations and their corresponding original photographs. One vintage photograph of Sean Connery as his James Bond character, shot on the set of Diamonds Are Forever, was photo-realistically recreated using ballpoint pen. Terry expressed amazement at its four weeks completion time. Listings wanted.