Just got the latest edition of Departures Magazine (an Amex publication) with a full cover picture of Mick Jagger taken in his younger days. The article was about an exhibit of the early works of Terry O’Neill’s showing at Morrison Hotel Gallery. Some very interesting insights from Terry:
He talked about spending time with a new, unknown band called the Rolling Stones, photographing them around London as they tried to make it big. At one point they met up with the Beatles- they asked them if they had a song that they could record. The Beatles gave them a song they were working on called “I Wanna Be Your Man.” As Terry says, “That’s the way it was in the early days; Everyone was pals.” HA! I would like to see that happen today- wait till the lawyers and record company execs got involved!!!
He talks about going through all of his old stuff starting about 4 years ago and finding images of Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Liz Taylor, Bridgette Bardot and Faye Dunaway (who he married). Also JFK, Churchhill and the Queen,
Here is the quote that was most interesting to me:
“Intimate, candid shots of rock and roll and movie stars don’t exist any more. Everything is stage managed for publicity and marketing.”
Makes me think of a few things-
Last month, I was asked if I wanted to go to the White House with Buddy Guy for a performance he did with BB King, Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger (and others). I reserved a hotel room and a plane ticket- then I found out that only the official White House photographer would be allowed to shoot- so I canceled the trip. Probably should have gone, but it would have been tough to sit there and watch without shooting.
Early in her career, my friend Jack was asked by People Magazine to go to New Jersey and photograph a young singer with potential by the name if Whitney Houston. He went to her house and spent the day taking beautiful pictures of her and her family. There is a great photograph of her from that shoot on the back cover of a Life Magazine special issue on the newsstand now. I am pretty sure that that situation would never happen in this day of “control of the artists image.”
Their loss.