David Bowie in Freddie Burretti - contact sheet, 1974 - Limited Edition Print by Terry O'Neill

David Bowie in Freddie Burretti - contact sheet, 1974 - Limited Edition Print by Terry O'Neill

16x20" Limited Edition of 50

Digitally signed and embossed on the front, stamped and authenticated on the reverse by a representation of the Terry O'Neill archive

Gelatin Silver Print

Terry O’Neill CBE is one of the world’s most collected photographers, with work hanging in national art galleries and private collections worldwide. From presidents to pop stars, he photographed on the frontlines of fame for over six decades. 

O’Neill began his career at the birth of the 1960s. While other photographers concentrated on earthquakes, wars and politics, O’Neill realised that youth culture was a breaking news story on a global scale; he began chronicling the emerging faces of the film, fashion and music scenes that would go on to define the Swinging Sixties. By 1965 he was being regularly commissioned by the biggest magazines and newspapers in the world.

No other photographer has embraced in such detail the spectrum of fame, capturing the icons of our age, from Winston Churchill to Nelson Mandela, singers from Frank Sinatra and Elvis to Amy Winehouse, big-screen stars from Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot to Nicole Kidman, modern supermodels from Naomi Campbell to Kate Moss, and almost every incarnation of James Bond from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig.

He photographed The Beatles and The Rolling Stones when they were still struggling young bands in 1963, and pioneered backstage reportage photography with David Bowie, Elton John, Eric Clapton, and Chuck Berry. His images have adorned historic rock albums, movie posters and international magazine covers. 

Terry O'Neill passed away in November 2019, but his legacy lives on. 

Gelatin Silver Print

Before the advent of digital technology at the end of the twentieth century, the gelatin silver process had been the most commonly used method of making black and white prints since the 1890s. A negative image is transferred to light-sensitive paper that has four layers: a paper base, a white opaque coating of gelatin and barium sulfate that creates a smooth surface, the gelatin layer that holds the silver grains of the photographic image, and a protective gelatin overcoat. Properly exposed gelatin silver prints are quite stable if exhibited under controlled light conditions.

Until the 1970s, art photographers used this process almost exclusively to create high-quality black and white prints. Color photography was considered a commercial medium, not suited to serious artistic expression. Today, as fewer and fewer photographers are working in darkrooms, gelatin silver printing is quickly becoming an antiquated, historic process.