'She was mesmerized by her mother': Photographer who captured the iconic picture of Carrie Fisher watching mom Debbie Reynolds on stage reveals the pair's adoring relationship 

• e-mail

The photographer who captured Carrie Fisher watching in the wings as her mom Debbie Reynolds performs on stage has opened up on the pair's relationship. 

Lawrence Schiller, 80, took the iconic shot in 1963 in Las Vegas of a six-year-old Fisher sat on a stool backstage as her mother appears to reach out during her curtain call.

The incident at the Riviera Hotel was not a one-off, and that the Star Wars icon would sit and watch her mother for hours.

Waiting in the wings: A six-year-old Carrie Fisher (front) sits on a stool and watches her mother Debbie Reynolds performing at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas in 1963

Photographer Lawrence Schiller who grew up in San Diego, California, having been born in Brooklyn, New York, and went on to take the iconic snap 

Billie Lourd, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (left to right) pose during TNT's 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, California

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (left) during A Celebrity Roast of Jane Fonda - Benefitting the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP) and the Star Wars icon at the New York Film Festival this year (right)

Carrie Fisher (left) and her mother Debbie Reynolds (right) posing for a picture in January last year

The photographer, who grew up in San Diego, California, having been born in Brooklyn told the New York Times: 'Her daughter was really mesmerized by her mother always.

'That's what really stood out.'

Not phased by big names, having photographed Marilyn Monroe a year earlier, he was able to get close enough to the family to realise there was a special bond between the two. 

The Las Vegas photo was shared widely online this week in the wake of the two actresses' deaths a day apart.

By the time he was backstage with Ms Fisher, he had already noticed how the six-year-old looked up to her mother. 

He said someone brought over a stool for the youngster, and she clambered up onto it independently to watch the whole singing-dancing act start to finish. 

'You're waiting for the moment in which something you've seen is illustrated,' Mr Schiller told the New York Times. 

Mr Schiller: 'Her daughter was really mesmerized by her mother always.'

'And then you don't even stop and think. 

'The image is there and your camera is like a sponge to absorb the moment.' 

It seemed Ms Fisher, 60, was content with watching her mother for hours, seemingly captivated by her presence. 

She would sit and stare as Mr Schiller snapped away at Debbie Reynolds in various photo shoots. 

Although close in recent years, the talented mother and daughter actresses didn't always see eye-to-eye.

When the Star Wars actress was in her youth, she refrained from talking to her mother for 10 years.

They became closer, however, when she got older, according to People and eventually became neighbors. 

Despite having a Hollywood actress and her soon-to-be legendary daughter at his disposal, the Brooklyn-born photographer told the Times taking pictures was not as easy as it looked.

Talking of that photo in Las Vegas, he had to pick from a wide range of options to capture the perfect shot.

He took out his Leica, the same camera he always used for fly-on-the-wall pictures due to its quiet shutter. 

Next he had to instinctively pick the lens, and decided on a wide angle, 28mm and set his shutter speed to slow.  

'You overcome the technology and that's what allows you to be a good photojournalist,' he said. 

'The technology becomes secondary.'

Although he rarely gets credit for the photo due to his name being cropped out of the reproduced versions, it has helped paint a powerful picture of their relationship in the aftermath of their tragic deaths. 

Thousands of fans have shared the image, with Mary Stewart saying: 'Carrie Fisher watching Mommy from backstage. So moving. Oh, my heart.' 

Fisher died  on December 27 in a Los Angeles hospital after she had a heart attack on a transatlantic flight last Friday.

A day later, her mother Debbie Reynolds passed away after suffering a stroke as she planned Fisher's funeral.