Paula Yates: ‘Why do you care so much about this picture?’

It was the photo the world had been waiting for — that of Michael Hutchence with Paula Yates and their love child Heavenly Hirani Tiger Lily. The task of capturing that image fell on the shoulders of Daily Telegraph photographer Jeff Darmanin.

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INXS was the soundtrack to my youth, so the opportunity to photograph Michael Hutchence, Paula Yates and their newborn daughter Tiger Lily was always going to be a day to remember.

It had been a very regular week, dispersed with news assignments and portrait shoots, when the picture editor shouted out at me: “Darmo get in here!”

“Get your arse down to Double Bay. Someone will meet you in the foyer and you’ll get to shoot pics with them in their room.”

“Don’t mess this up,” he yelled.

Australian rocker Michael Hutchence with Paula Yates and their baby daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily at the Ritz Carlton in Double Bay in 1996. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

No pressure. Meet one of your idols. Don’t get overwhelmed. And don’t let the PR moron constantly asking “Are you done yet?” stop me from asking for what I want.

Hutchence and Yates had been in Sydney for a few days and were being harassed by paparazzi photographers looking for a big payday with the first image of them together with their baby.

HEAR PAULA’S EXPLOSIVE COMMENT: WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

The easiest way to reduce the value of that image was for Hutchence and Yates’ management to choose a media outlet and get an exclusive shoot done.

I was just the lucky photographer on the end of that chain of events.

Walking into their room I was nervous and excited.

“Dark,” was my first thought. “Where’s the bloody light?”

Most photographers do this when thinking about their shoot.

Darmanin was desperate to capture an image of Tiger Lily’s face. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

The couple were loved-up during the shoot. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

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I shook hands and exchanged pleasantries for a minute while scanning the room for available light. Where the hell I was going to take these pictures?

Michael was relaxed and comfortable when we started shooting.

You could see the couple were very much in love and that asking them to get close together and hug wasn’t going to be a problem.

The only real issue was that Paula didn’t want me to capture the baby.

The picture editor’s voice kept ringing in the back of my mind: “Don’t mess this up!”

I would only get two or three different options in the few minutes available to find the balance of right background and composition so I worked very quickly.

Paula was saying to me: “Why do you care so much about this picture? Don’t you just work for the paper? Will this take long?”

“Leave him alone Paula, let him do his job,” Michael piped up.

Money shot. A relaxed Paula allowed Darmanin to photograph the couple’s daughter’s face. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

I tried not to be offended, as it was always my dream to work at the country’s biggest paper, and in the back of my mind I knew this image would be published globally.

Paula could see the obvious strain on my face when I couldn’t manage get Tiger Lily’s face in the frame. She relaxed a little as Michael hugged her.

Daily Telegraph photographer Jeff Darmanin.

Less than a year later, Darmanin would photograph Hutchence’s funeral, capturing this image of a devastated Paula Yates. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

My last chance was to ask if they would walk out to the balcony with me and allow me to shoot with the lovely light bounced off other buildings.

“No probs,” came the response from Michael and Paula.

Meanwhile the PR kept asking if I was done yet.

“S**t me! No mate. I’m not finished. I only started two minutes ago.”

The couple themselves seemed to enjoy the outside shoot, and the shots proved to be the best images of the session.

Tiger Lily was calm and comfortable and within a few minutes I felt I had taken up enough of their time — and got a profile of the baby’s face in Paula’s arm, with Michael embracing them both.

INXS band members Andrew Farriss and Garry Beers, and Hutchence’s brother Rhett, carry Michael Hutchence’s coffin out of St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney. Picture: Jeff Darmanin

While talking to other photographers days later, I realised just how lucky I was not to have stuffed up the exclusive.

I found out there had been paparazzi photographers on top of the building and looking out of windows onto the hotel and I had inadvertently brought the celebrity family out into the range of their lenses in my search for light.

While I knew the images were important at the time, I could never have imagined that just a year later Michael would be found dead in the same hotel — and I would be photographing his funeral.

There are only a handful of moments that stick in your mind during your career and I can honestly say the pleasure of meeting Michael and Paula was one of them.

The tragic end met by two amazing talented people closed a period of my life I will never forget.

Originally published as Paula Yates: ‘Why do you care so much about this picture?’