Terry O'Neill Rocks the B&W at Fotografiska

Jun 11

David Bowie for Diamond Dog
Singer David Bowie poses with a large barking dog for publicity shots for his 1974 album ‘Diamond Dogs’ in London.© Terry O'Neill - Iconic Images

Just opened at Fotografiska, 281 Park Ave. South: a brilliant collection of photographs by the renowned British rock ‘n’ roll/Hollywood photographer and friend to the stars Terry O’Neill.

While the show includes dozens of shots of actors, and lots of color works, we chose to focus on the black-and white-shots of rock stars that O’Neill made away from his life as Sinatra’s swinging sidekick and Dunaway long-term lover/short-term husband. It was, after all, his early shots of the Beatles and the Stones that launched O’Neill’s career.

O’Neill originally had hoped to become a jazz drummer, but settled for a job in the technical photography unit of British Overseas Airways Corp. (There’s actually a picture of him sitting at Ringo Star’s drum kit during one of his shoots of the group.)

You know how in photography and other arts, there is often a single moment that makes an artist’s career. Well, O’Neill’s came at Heathrow airport in the early 60s when he snapped a picture of a man sleeping in the terminal surrounded by a group of African chieftains dressed in full tribal gear. The man turned out to be British Foreign Secretary Rab Butler. He sold the picture for £25 to Daily Sketch.

The photo did a 1960s version of going viral and O’neill was hired by the newspaper. Its photo editor Len Franklin told O’neill: “We think youth is on the rise in England and it’s going to change the world. We want you to photograph that.” He did, and a career was launched. Later he’d shoot the rock legends below and many more. We’ve included Frank Sinatra, because, well, he’s the chairman of the board and he personified rock ‘n’ roll swagger before the genre was invented.

The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 16 at Fotografiska also includes dozens of O’Neill’s iconic photographs of other celebrities including his famous 1971 shot of French actress Brigitte Bardot smoking a cigar on the set of the movie “Les Petroleuses” a.k.a. “The Legend of Frenchie King.”

And no collection of O’Neill’s work would be complete without what is possibly his best known shot, that of actress Faye Dunaway, who O’Neill would later marry, slumped in a deck chair poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel at 6 a.m. on the morning after she won the Best Actress Oscar for Network. The golden oscar statue is on a table in front of her and newspapers are scattered about.

If you can see yourself in that pose, Fotografiska has you covered. They've set up a mock up of the shot you can step into to reenact the pose and snap your own version.