‘Unseen’ Bond images by photographer Terry O’Neill discovered (update)

Previously unseen images by Terry O’Neill, including pictures from early James Bond films, have been discovered during research of the celebrity photographer’s archive.

The finds, which were made in the past few months, include a photo of Bond actor Sean Connery ‘off duty’ with showgirls in Las Vegas and Honor Blackman in a ‘provocative’ Pussy Galore shoot that was never published.

The pictures – many from the Sixties – are due to go on show next month at an exhibition in London entitled Terry O?Neill: 50 Years At The Top.

Work on display will include the photographer’s famous 1971 image of Brigitte Bardot smoking a cigar (see below).

O’Neill said: ‘The Sixties were an incredible time. Young people took over, creating their own cultural landscape on stage in music, fashion and on the film set.

I was lucky. Seriously lucky. I was in the right place at the right time. But I never realised then that we were remaking the world in our own image, or that mine would become such a testament to the time.

O’Neill is grateful for the freedom he was given, ‘on film sets, backstage and just rubbing shoulders with my mates who became these icons’ – something not available to photographers today, he said.

‘Now, image is everything; the stars are brands and their management control access and publication, so we never get to see them as they really are at work, rest or play.’

Terry O’Neill: 50 Years At The Top will take place at Chris Beetles Fine Photographs from 23 March-23 April.