Shooting the stars

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Sue Ward visits The Sunday Times Magazine 50th anniversary exhibition and talks to Terry O’ Neill

This February The Sunday Times Magazine is 50 years old. To celebrate, the Saatchi Gallery is holding a free photographic exhibition of some of the covers and the famous, even iconic, images to grace the pages of this, the first colour newspaper supplement in the UK. Of course the exhibition highlights the contribution made to the Magazine by its renowned writers, but it is for the images one should visit the top floor of the Saatchi. The photojournalism of the magazine is one of its strengths,  and photographers featured include Don McCullin, David Bailey, Eve Arnold, Snowdon, Richard Avedon, Eugene Richards, Sam Taylor Wood, Terry O’ Neill, Chris Floyd and Stuart Franklin. Fifty years later, with its unique ‘Spectrum’ photography section the Sunday Times Magazine is still attracting the world’s best photographers and photojournalists. Some of their work is shown on our lightbox above.

One of the photographers present at the opening was Terry O’Neill, whose photographs have appeared in the magazine throughout its life. I was fortunate to meet this renowned photographer, who came to fame in the 1960s and whose images documented the styles and personalities of that swinging era. He was famous not only for his photographs of The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, when they were struggling young bands, but also for shots of members of the Royal family and politicians. His style showed a more human side of these personalities than had been seen before.

In the 1970s the pop scene was changing, ‘the Beatles and Stones were giving up’  so, invited by Donald Zec he moved to Hollywood  and started shooting the stars: ‘I used 35mm film, still photographs, and the stars loved it’. He photographed Frank Sinatra, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan – the list is endless.

He had a relationship with Faye Dunaway and was married to her from 1983 to1986. One of his most famous images of her is in the exhibition; called ‘The Morning After’, it shows Dunaway reclining on a chair by a swimming pool in Los Angeles in 1977, with her Oscar statue on the table in front of her and newspapers strewn around her feet. After the Oscars party she had three hours’ sleep and rose at 6 a.m. for the shot. Next to the image, O’Neill is quoted as saying that ‘I told her I was sick to death of all those people winning these huge awards and just standing there holding it. The picture is called The Morning After because that’s when the penny drops, when their money goes from $250,000 dollars to $one million at least, their whole life changes’. His image is certainly different to the usual banal ones of stars showing off their statuettes and grinning into the camera.

After his divorce from Dunaway, he returned to England ‘skint’ and found out that ‘your career is only as good as your last picture’ – he had not worked in Britain for some time. He rang the Sunday Times and has worked for them ever since. One of his more memorable images, for many reasons, is of the late Amy Winehouse.  Terry was employed to record a concert for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, and he thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of every performer, get them to sign it and present it to the great man.  One of the stars was Amy Winehouse, who had come straight from a clinic in order to sing. He explained to Amy what he wanted and she agreed. He only took one shot, and it features in the exhibition and it is wonderful.  Although a strong image it somehow shows her vulnerability. After the photograph was taken as Amy moved away he heard her say, ‘This ones for you Nelson’. O’ Neill looked very reflective as he said ‘such talent, so very sad.’

Terry O’ Neill now sells many of his works as limited edition prints and he also has his own photographic award which draws thousands of entrants from around the world.   He has had numerous exhibitions, including three large retrospectives at Chris Beetles Fine Photographs, London.

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The Sunday Times Magazine exhibition runs at the Saatchi Gallery London  until Sunday 19 February 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.