Terry O'Neill British, 1938-2019

Behind the Lens: Terry O'Neill's Story:

”The morning of March 29th, 1977, an iconic image of Hollywood was born.

For every photo you know, there’s likely to be at least a dozen other shots from that same moment. Such is the case with the iconic image of Faye Dunaway.

As Terry O’Neill remembered: “We met a few weeks before and struck up a friendship. She was the odds-on favourite to win an Oscar for her astonishing performance in ‘Network’. I was asked to take a photo of the winner, so I convinced Faye to meet me at the pool first thing next morning. I didn’t want to take the expected photo; the one with the actor holding the award, moments after, with a stunned expression. I wanted to capture something different.

“I somehow convinced Faye to agree.”

As the legend goes, Terry convinced Faye to meet him by the pool at The Beverly Hills Hotel as early as possible the morning after the Academy Awards. True to her word, she appeared on time at the break of dawn having had barely a minute’s sleep. Terry charmed the staff to let them use the pool for an hour and while he scattered the morning’s papers at her feet, all trumpeting her success. Faye arrived, sat in the chair and placed her golden statue on the table. And with a few snaps, an iconic image was born.

“The other shots are just as interesting. I had her move around the table a bit, asked her to stand up, zoomed out so you could see the palm trees in the distance, and then reclined the chair so she could lie down. She even changed her wardrobe at one point, from her silk dressing gown to a sharp white suit.

“I wanted to capture that moment, the morning after. The idea was to capture that moment when the actor wakes-up and it dawns on them that, overnight, they’ve not only become a star, but their entire life just changed.

“This is that moment of realisation.”