Above image: Sean Connery keeps a cool stance during location filming for Diamonds are Forever. One of the many great images in the new Terry O'Neill photo essay ALL ABOUT BOND. Image: © Terry O'Neill/EVANS MITCHELL BOOKS 2012
ALL ABOUT BOND
By Terry O’Neill
Published by EVANS MITCHELL Books
Reviewed by Scott Weller
As iconic as the people he so ably captures on Kodak, legendary photographer Terry O’Neill has been a vital lens man helping British superspy James Bond keep his license to kill, and his ability to thrill audiences for the last 50 years. Now, both figures, real and imaginary, synergize perfectly in the artist’s beautiful new coffee table book history published by EVANS MITCHELL: ALL ABOUT BOND.
A man of many talents whose vast archive is opened to the full in this incredible 50thAnniversary year for 007, O’Neill presents the purest form of Bond and its legacy of 22 spectacular, always groundbreaking movies. His is the nuanced and observational camera shutter eye to the incredible universe of the celluloid super-spy, his unique version of the golden gun as it shoots its bullets into the world of entertainment and celebrity portraiture.
Check out some superb images and details for ALL ABOUT BOND at the official site, and how to get the book in an exclusive special edition luxury slipcase (at no extra cost, and not available through AMAZON): http://www.allaboutbond.com/home
ALL ABOUT BOND is a glorious and sumptuous book- a beautiful and nostalgic time capsule of people and classic events from the 1960’s and 1970’s eras of Bond-the former when it really was king of the world box office champions– part of a true golden age of personalities and superstars of which O’Neill was intrinsically linked, within a world changing period of attitudes and lifestyle linked to 007’s success clearly evident through this photographers clever and captivating, specially chosen portfolio, showing us the fun and attractive side of the most iconic people in front of and behind the scenes to have brought the incredible phenomenon to filmic life for generations and millions worldwide to enjoy.
Self-taught in the art of the camera framed masterpiece, the talent of Terry O’Neill shines brightly throughout its pages. It’s a life behind the scenes he clearly enjoys, keeping a subtle, chameleon-like presence on set with his friends and co-workers as he captures many true photographic gems, showing the human qualities of his subjects, many of which appear in the book for the first time…
All of the diverse and ground-breaking aspects of the BOND phenomenon are explored around the pictures, of which some of the gaps in O’Neill’s photographic history with the series are ably filled with great archive material courtesy of the legendary and vast vaults of Graham Rye’s 007 MAGAZINE archive, alongside themed essays and observations over the years from talented Bond-o-philes the likes of GQ magazine’s Dylan Jones, who examines Bond’s evolving fashion sense, Joe Dunn’s look at the sleek, beautiful and deadly cars that have played such a vital style part in the series over the years, and, most importantly, a fine and warm remembrance from THE SUNDAY TIMES writer Godfrey Smith of his friend, Ian Fleming: the alter ego man in the mirror to Bond who created film’s most enduring superspy, with his expert and very unique individual style of pace, dialogue and character, carved out of his own real life career as a Naval Intelligence danger maker.
Beautifully designed (under supervision from Stephen Reid), this book is a class act for a class series of films, capturing their mood and flavour on and off screen with just the right amount of iconic, sometimes flippant, joy that they deserve. There’s some sparse but key recollections from O’Neill on certain supremely indelible images (like Sean Connery playing golf on a moon lunarscape whilst a Neil Armstrong space-suited lookalike watches surely incredulously under the darkened visor!) plus some of the classic imagery over the years that has graced so many magazine and book cover/features worldwide over, beautifully reprinted, which leave a firm place in Bond fans and audience hearts form the time when we all first bought them eagerly awaiting our continued new fix of the super secret agent thankfully working for our side.
The first and one true Bond, Sean Connery, known for his tough reputation and suffering no fools gladly attitude, shows a more appealing and human side to himself in ALL ABOUT BOND – seemingly ready to finally move on from Bond in his last (or so he thought) official 1970 stint: Diamonds Are Forever- a no longer stressed and bitter actor, seen in splendid O’Neill on-set pics as playful, ever confident and often seemingly enjoying the privileges and sometimes excesses that happen when you’ve become such an icon, at the top of the world in popularity. The enduring enigma and appeal of Sean Connery: man, actor, Bond, continues.
O’Neill also shows us the other acting incarnations who had the difficult job of following in Connery’s mighty footsteps and panther like walk, including one-off George Lazenby (whose work with O’Neill is mostly from an early pre-007 fashion shoot) and the rather more successful introduction of the humorous Roger Moore, in a fine career profile written by George Perry, mixing martinis and raised eyebrows, charting a Bond that was an altogether different successor to the often brutal Connery, most of the time deadlier with his quips and British humour than his Walther PPK. Moore and O’Neill became firm friends on the formers introductory picture, Live and Let Die, and this clearly shows in further relaxed in-the-mood images on and off set, as well as some sterling posed studio work that helps give the under-rated Moore a strong visual start into the seventies.
Sadly, two-film Timothy Dalton’s cold eyed Bond- the dangerous spy who helped the series escape self and outside parody- receives scant treatment in the book-seemingly having not been photographed by O’Neill. Instead, the back to Fleming approach of his era is represented by Maryam D’Abo’s warm recollections of filming The Living Daylights and the unique family atmosphere present when becoming a member of the exclusive BOND women club.
Pierce Brosnan, finally at the right age to play Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, gets his well deserved entrance into the Bond circus in style with 1995’s GoldenEye, as O’Neill is back in camera action at Pinewood Studios to visually witness the Irish superstar, escaped from the smarmy antics of the REMINGTON STEELE TV series, make his spot-on territorial mark and all-important first license to kill stripes. Brosnan’s good looks, humour and hard work would impress the photographer as he brought his own kind of polished hybrid Connery/Moore persona/portrayal to Bond for the mid-nineties and early 2000’s. Finally, O’Neill completes his portfolio of Bond actors with the recent into the camera shutter eye capture of craggy and gritty star, and dedicated follower of fashion, Daniel Craig, as seen in a recent issue of British GQ magazine.
But where is Bond without a beautiful woman at his side, sharing the risks, the danger and his bed. How could we possibly forget the glamorous and incredibly beautiful women, the Bond sex symbols, who have entered all our cinematic lives in such a pleasing, often revolutionary way. ALL ABOUT BOND is an equally fine tribute to their considerable charms, as O’Neill brings out the glamour, sophistication and all-round desirability of these wonderful and versatile ladies who have helped enriched the phenomenon, in photo portfolios here that will certainly get the pulse rate beating and prove a feast for the eyes, including Shirley Eaton’s striking golden persona, a white stockings clad Joanna Lumley tantalizingly aiming her gun at readers eyes and hearts, an in her prime Honor Blackman, a true pussy (galore!) almost looking and acting like Anita Ekberg, frolicking in a bikini in the seas of Gozo, young and spellbinding Solitaire-in-waiting Jane Seymour, the could melt an iceberg looks of Britt Ekland, and the sin-tilating Caroline Munro, who made all healthy men alcoholics with her sexy seventies rum promotions!
Alongside Brit Ekland, and Madeline Smith, Eaton, Lumley and Blackman
also talk fondly about their priceless time working on their films, and their continued association to it, in sections edited by Roger Moore’s equally beautiful daughter, Deborah, with Robin Morgan assisting in what must have been such a chore. Hey, somebody had to do it!
And the beautiful women continue galore into the realms of unofficial Bonds, what with the likes of original Connery trend setter Ursula Andress and Brit star Jacqueline Bisset, in a lively retro look back at camp 1967 classic CASINO ROYALE, starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, and others as Bond, whose O’Neill pictures often prove more fun than the actual film ever was!
Away from O’Neill’s frames, Bond’s other legendary visual genius, Sir Ken Adam, brings the book to a fine close with a look back at his classic set designs which so beautifully merged fantasy with reality, like Goldfinger’s stunning Fort Knox interior and the immense submarine bay from The Spy Who Loved Me. The experience of a phenomenon is satisfyingly complete.
A warm and enjoyable tribute to the fantasy that is James Bond, ALL ABOUT BOND is an essential purchase coffee table book that people will fight over to read, as they remember all the good times, classic moments of adventure, glamour and sheer audacity that the long-lived super-spy has provided them over the years.
KOOL TV RATING: 4.5 out of 5
O’Neill’s photo exhibition of ALL ABOUT BOND continues at Chelsea’s PROUD GALLERY (161 King’s Road, London, SW3 5XP) until 4thNovember 2012
007 MAGAZINE covers the gallery/book launch: http://www.007magazine.co.uk/news_terry_oneill1.htm
Further ALL ABOUT BOND publicity: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/movies/movie-news/sean-connery-star-of-all-about-bond-exhibit-1322032
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