Terry O'Neill photograph of Raquel Welch

Source: Terry O’Neill / Iconic Images

Terry O’Neill photograph of Raquel Welch

British photographer Terry O’Neill is to be the subject of a feature-length documentary, titled Iconic: The Life And Work Of Terry O’Neill, helmed by UK filmmaker Oliver Murray.

The film is being made with the close co-operation of Terry O’Neill’s surviving family. O’Neill will narrate his own story via previously unheard recordings.

The east London-born photographer was famous for snapping the likes of Judy Garland, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the British royal family and Elton John.

It is produced by Hank Starrs (Elstree 1976) and Murray through Orofena Films. Laurence Gornall’s Unannounced Film Company is selling the title at the EFM.

Murray’s credits include docu-series My Life As A Rolling Stone and Disney+ short The Beatles: Now And Then.

“I was lucky enough to interview Terry in 2017 to discuss his long relationship with the Rolling Stones,” said Murray. ”Ever since then I wanted to bring his life and work to the screen. Terry took portraiture out of the studio and into the real world. He created a fantasy within the frame but the contradiction of his work is that this fantasy often revealed a deeper truth about the person he was photographing.

”He could boil down someone’s essence and magnetism to a single brilliant image, displaying icons of our age as vulnerable and emotional. Even the most inaccessible stars wanted to pose for him; mention a global celebrity from the second half of the 20th century and that person probably posed for Terry’s camera.”