EVEN if you don’t know the name, Terry O’Neill’s photographs tell their own story.

His new exhibition Celebrity at the Richard Goodall Gallery profiles icons from the ‘60s to the present: Shirley Maclaine, The Beatles and rock ‘n’ roll mania, ‘80s soon-to-be mega-stars like Tom Cruise, through to the ‘90s with Tony’s press shots and the Queen and Prince Philip staring fearlessly at the camera as their pet corgi stands up on his back legs, seemingly posing for the camera as well.

“The Queen’s got a great sense of humour,” he says, “I thought they’d reject that one with the dog, but she selected it as the official shot.”

And although Celebrity is the story of O’Neill’s success, this wasn’t quite how he imagined things." I started out as a jazz drummer,” he says earnestly, “and that was the really important thing.

"Then rock ’n’ roll arrived and all the jazz clubs were closing, The Beatles exploded and… it all took off."

Sinatra

A day job at Heathrow photographing important people in transit lead to a front page, and soon massive stars like Sinatra, Faye Dunaway and Paul Newman were in front of his lens.

Parallel to the social revolution was O'Neill’s equally groundbreaking v'rit' style.

His 35mm camera gave the images a velocity, and lent a fragility to the subjects usually absent from formal poses - in one Sinatra cruises down Miami Beach with his body double looking like a mafioso, in another Audrey Hepburn adjusts her huge white shades, her presentation of perfection shattered for a second.

With a peer group largely from the East End of London, including society photographer David Bailey, O’Neill and company found themselves in fashionable favour.

“I was at this party in Holly wood with people like Fred Astaire,” he says, "and all everyone wanted to know about were The Rolling Stones and miniskirts and Jean Shrimpton, and we were the people who'd made them - we were like gods!”

But unlike many, he wasn’t swept up in his own fame, and moved with the rapidly shifting times.

New large format cameras and styles of shooting, like the huge outdoor posed scenes favoured by ‘80s Hollywood, lead to more structured shots - Michael Douglas, glittering and golden under outdoor light, surrounded by Greek pillars, the epitomy of Dynasty glamour.

Alongside a natural talent, O’Neill’s willingness to embrace a formal style and his obvious pleasure in working with people has contributed to his contracts with the State. “I do quite a few shots for Tony Blair,” he says demurely.

“He's a nice man, a really nice man... and Mrs Blair's a really classy woman and a great mother, but you read the papers and it's like a different world in this country.”

Looking back, O’Neill says, "Nobody ever thought it was going to last. We all thought by the time we were 25 we'd have to get proper jobs - go and work in a bank or Marks (and Spencer) or something.

"I used to sit there with The Beatles and The Stones discussing that very fact - what job we were going to do.” 40 years later and it’s finally dawned on Terry O’Neill - this is for real.

Celebrity: The Photographs of Terry O’Neill is at the Richard Goodall Gallery, 59 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester 832 3435 from 24 October Opening times: Tues- Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 11am-5pm. Terry O’Neill will be signing copies of his book Celebrity (Little Brown, £30) 6pm-8pm on Thursday 23.

Tweet