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The visual mastermind behind Charli xcx and Haim, to name but a few – if you’ve scrolled through a social media feed once in the past year, you’ve almost definitely encountered his handiwork.
@terrencefoconnor
“I only work with my heroes,” Terrence O’Connor tells Man About Town. “It’s really special.” It’s quite the position to be in by the age of 31, and all the more impressive when said heroes comprise much of music’s crème de la crème of the 2020s. From the top: Troye Sivan, Mark Ronson, Omar Apollo, Charli xcx and Haim have all benefited from the aesthete prowess of O’Connor. Oh and also Man About Town SS25 cover star, internet giant and Overcompensating’s Benito Skinner, O’Connor’s boyfriend and the first client he ever had.
But as a photographer, creative director and digital strategist – what exactly does O’Connor’s role entail? “I work on a lot of different types of projects, but I would say my speciality and probably what I’m most known for is working with artists on their album campaigns,” he explains. The TikTok era has made the visual world and momentum around any release of a record more vital than ever. “Before that you would hardly even tease a song before it was released, now it’s baked into the marketing plans. So really my job is to help conceive and execute what happens over that period, which ranges widely and requires a lot of collaboration across social media, creative, PR, product marketing, etc.” He also shoots artwork and music videos – namely, all of the single covers for xcx’s 2024 album of the summer Brat or this year’s noughties-paparazzi-inspired I Quit Haim visuals.
The reality O’Connor’s living out in 2025 is something that didn’t remotely feel on the cards for his younger self, who struggled in early adulthood through the process of coming out. “There was a lot of despair back then,” he shares. “So it’s cool because everything I’ve done is something my younger self said he wanted to do. But I think he would be impressed that I actually managed to figure it out.”
As one of Man About Town’s “Queer Creatives Shaping Culture” this Pride season, O’Connor unpacks the early days of working on Brat, how moving to LA helped supercharge his career and the “foundational” Lindsay Lohan music video he remains obsessed with to this day…
@terrencefoconnor
Hi, Terrence! You have the opportunity to curate the Pride float of your dreams — what five individuals (living or deceased) are definitely coming with you?
Omg, this is so hard. I literally think I’d just pick my best friends. Ben my boyfriend, Mary Beth for some bi representation, Charli obviously. I’m realising that float might have literally already happened in 2020 or something. I would also ask Owen Thiele if he was free but he probably wouldn’t be. And then my friend Aurora who I idolise and don’t get to see enough.
You’re a photographer, creative director and digital strategist working with some of the biggest artists in the music industry. What does that look like on a day-to-day basis?
Honestly 90 per cent it’s just me texting and the remaining 10 per cent is being on planes lol. But it’s awesome. It’s a lot of laughing too. In order for it to work, I’ve found we really have to love each other and so I’m lucky to have that with all of the artists I work with.
You are, of course, also the boyfriend and close collaborator of our Spring/Summer 2025 cover star Benito Skinner. Can you tell us how your collaboration has helped shape what you’re doing today?
Yes, he’s my number one. The first client I ever had. And honestly, I was one of his first fans. I think I started following him when he had 2,000 followers and I decided I was going to marry him months before we had our first date. But honestly, everything we do is woven together between our personal lives and work. The only reason I ever met Charli was because of a party he was invited to. But I love it. I think we both taught each other that we could make our dream jobs with our own two hands. Everything started with just us and that’s really the spirit I approach each project with.
Did the Brat experience feel particularly special in the early days of creating?
With every album project, the early days are really cool and honestly pretty tender. You’re hearing music that sometimes isn’t even done yet, and you’re listening to ideas that might seem far-fetched. It’s really special. I could scroll back to all of our first texts and everything Charli wanted for Brat she made [happen] slash is still making happen. So I’m really honoured to have got to help work on that.
You’ve started off this summer dominating internet feeds with your work on Haim’s I Quit, recreating nostalgic paparazzi shots for the band’s artworks. Where did that inspiration come from and what makes a noughties celebrity street snap so irresistible?
It was one of the first things [Haim member] Danielle told me she wanted to do together. I think they knew early on that the Nicole Kidman photo [referenced in the artwork for lead single “Relationships”] really embodied the spirit of the album, and once I heard the music it was clear. It’s actually funny because I complain a lot about how many things are references nowadays, and generally I try not to rely on them. So this was kind of a fun challenge to still make photos that were interesting to me while so heavily going off of images that already existed. I love every single one though. Paparazzi culture was kind of nuts back then since it was often the most access you had to celebrities’ private lives. It was sort of invasive and creepy, but captured some very real moments we don’t always get anymore. Now they livestream themselves from their bathrooms. So there was something exciting to me about using that type of long lens photography as artwork. Creating distance again while trying to capture something intimate.
Winding the clock back, can you tell us about your journey from the suburbs of Boston to being one of music’s most well-connected creatives?
(Laughs) I think that might be a generous title. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but after 10 years of working, I guess you just take little steps forward and your successes accumulate. Moving to LA was a really big step though. We had been living in New York for four years doing our thing, but I think it was getting to LA that made things much more legit. Being around so many other artists really gives you the confidence to say, “This is what I want to do,” and to figure out how to make it happen. I really like LA for that reason. It’s a lot of friends making things together.
What do you love most about being queer?
I love being in love and I sometimes suspect that being gay gives us a different level of closeness that I don’t always see in straight relationships. Because we truly share everything. We like the same things, we share clothes. Our brains work the same way. There’s a closeness that sometimes feels like siblinghood which might sound weird, but it’s true. The other people I see with aspects of it are the Haim girls who often will accidentally say the same thing at the same time the way Ben and I do. It’s a bond that I kind of feel lost without when we’re away from each other for too long. I think my depression as a kid was because my body knew I wasn’t complete without him… Sorry if that’s too intense – we are both Scorpios (laughs).
The classic pop video you’re putting on at the Pride after party is…
“Rumors” by Lindsay Lohan. I don’t know if it’s a classic, but it is foundational for me. I wanted to be her so badly. I thought she was the coolest. Dream hair, the little digital camera, Helipad dance break. Fact check me on this, but she may have pioneered the giant circus bird cage that was later made famous with Miley’s “Can’t Be Tamed”. Love. Anyway I’m still obsessed to this day and to be honest, bring back editing that’s as good as that. We’ve lost that. So good.
