Relaxing with the stars

To make it big as a photographer in the Sixties, you simply made friends with the right people according to Terry O'Neill. He once said that his glittering career as a celebrity snapper was aided by working on film sets and cosying up to the stars: "[I] spent as much time as I could with them. This meant I got an insight into my subjects as real people and not just as icons." It also meant he had privileged (and increasingly rare) access to these closeted beings and was able to catch them in relaxed, off-duty poses - Michael Caine having a nap, Racquel Welch playing football, Claudia Cardinale frolicking in bed - thus getting the shots that other photographers couldn't.

Holly Kyte