Raquel Welch being crucified in an anachronistic publicity still for One Million Years B.C., directed by Don Chaffey, 1966. Photographed by Terry O’Neil.
Raquel Welch being crucified in an anachronistic publicity still for One Million Years B.C., directed by Don Chaffey, 1966. Photographed by Terry O’Neil.
The photograph, known as Raquel Welch On The Cross, was an artistic and personal statement for both Raquel and Terry, made at the turning point of the 1960s when the old conservative ways were giving way to a sexual revolution that Raquel Welch would become one of the faces of.
Despite this, Ms Welch was shy and worried about being filmed in the fur bikini, worried that she might be crucified in the press for it. Mr O’Neill quickly asked 20th Century Fox to set up a crucifix, and he got to work taking several photographs from many different angles.
The picture is a metaphor for being trapped and strung up by the press, particularly at that time as they believed she only had the career she had because of her looks. Ultimately, Mr O’Neill, being raised Catholic, was worried that people would read the photograph not as the piece of feminist art it is seen as now but as blasphemous and did not publish the photos until much later.