Kirkland and O Neill – Defining the sixties – A talk at Photo London exhibition
I signed up for this “talk” as I thought it would be good to do something lighthearted and great to hear how two professional photographers worked in the sixties.
Sir Douglas Kirkland: Irving Penn gave him his start, working for look magazine in New York and later Life magazine. He basically photographed anything he was asked to ultimately including Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Munro, coco Chanel, he described these as emotional photographs of actresses.
(Iconic Images, 2018)
(Douglas Kirkland, 2018)
After this he came to London photographing Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie, John Lennon amongst many others.
(Iconic Images, 2018)
He sometimes worked with subjects on sets, such as 2001 space Odyssey, and Butch Cassidy.
(Douglas Kirkland, 2018)
Kirkland is particularly proud of his photograph for life magazine of Ann Margaret on her Chopper bike and captured the picture after saying “we got it!” when she relaxed.
(Douglas Kirkland, 2018)
He says that his favorite picture is of Elizabeth Taylor at the beginning of her career and next to that one of Marilyn Munro. He described how he was able to work with her on her own without an entourage and this enabled him to get the intimate shots.
(Douglas Kirkland, 2018)
It was good to hear his personal recipe for getting great portraits: Learn about your subject, be interested in them, care for the people you shoot, and in turn enable them to feel secure. He actually said that he couldn’t shoot people he didn’t like.
Terry O Neill: As with Kirkland it useful to hear how O Neill’s career began, really by exploiting opportunities as they presented. He started out as a jazz drummer and did some photography on the side. Pop stars had not been photographed before, and most photographers didn’t want to photograph the young stars; this meant there were many magazines that wanted pictures, so he was able to make a great living. O Neill was taught to look for the new faces and photograph them, and was unusually young when he photographed the Beatles for the daily sketch.
(South China Morning Post, 2018) (Iconic Images, 2018)
It was interesting to hear him describe those he photographed and evident that he too firmed good relationships with them. It was also fascinating to hear his observations which proved that he tried to understand those he photographed; he describes the Stones as a group of individuals, whilst the Beatles had 1 voice.
He too photographed on many film sets.
(Iconic Images, 2018)
He spoke candidly about the women he’d photographed. O Neill said that Elizabeth Taylor’s only attractive physical feature was her eyes and that she was an example of somone who was massively hyped, whereas Bridget Bardot and Marianne Faithful were “stunners” as was Christy Turlington, adding but “we all see things differently”.
(Iconic Images, 2018) (Turner | Barnes | Gallery, 2018)
When given the opportunity to photograph Frank Sinatra he followed him for 3 weeks and says he learnt two lessons 1) be there but stay out of sight 2) even the famous were shy. He says his favourite picture is of frank Sinatra and his entourage arriving on set:
(Iconic Images, 2018)
It was also good to hear how determined he was to shoot a subject in an particular location; for instance to set up the photograph of Faye Dunaway at Beverly Hills hotel where he wasn’t allowed to shoot, he used his friendship with a pool attendant who let him set the shot up very early in the morning.
(Iconic Images, 2018)
He is particularly proud of his photograph of Brigitte Bardot on the set of ‘Les Petroleuses’.
(Iconic Images, 2018)
My learning points:
- It was refreshing to hear two photographers describing how much they enjoyed their photography.
- It was interesting to learn how different photography was in the sixties: no entourages, a fast changing world, lots of emerging talent, a shortage of photographers interested in shooting celebrities, the notion that their success would be very short term.
- They were in agreement that in comparison photographing now is much tougher and less enjoyable than the sixties. They described in particular how they believe that photographs were more easily obtained back then by having direct contact with the subject (without entourages), which would not be the case today.
- It was useful to hear their top tips for portrait photography:
- Develop relationships with your subjects
- Shoot them doing what they do
- Try to shoot portraits with the subject on their own
- Work outside of a studio where possible
- Remember that even the famous are shy
- Try to stay unobtrusive to catch the real person.
Overall I found it inspiring to hear first-hand how they worked and to feel thier passion and pride in their work.
References:
Douglas Kirkland. (2018). Classics. [online] Available at: http://www.douglaskirkland.com/classics/rj4tc68r48fxxw1mstybk8qw200rai [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
Iconic Images. (2018). DK_CE023 : – Iconic Images. [online] Available at: https://iconicimages.net/photo/dk-ce023/?gallery=celebrities-2 [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
Iconic Images. (2018). Screen – Iconic Images. [online] Available at: https://iconicimages.net/gallery/screen/ [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].Iconic Images. (2018). BB001 : Brigitte Bardot – Iconic Images. [online] Available at: https://iconicimages.net/photo/bb001-brigitte-bardot/?gallery=screen [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
South China Morning Post. (2018). Terry O’Neill, accidental photographer, on his superstar subjects. [online] Available at: http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1754035/terry-oneill-accidental-photographer-his-superstar-subjects [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
Turner | Barnes | Gallery. (2018). Turner Barnes Gallery | UK based Art Gallery | International Art Dealers. [online] Available at: http://interiorangle.co.uk/paintings/terry-oneill-artist-art-marianne-faithful-london-1964/ [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
Photography 1: Identity and Place 