A major new retrospective at the Southhampton Arts Center pays tribute to Scottish photojournalist Harry Benson, who spent more than seven decades capturing some of pop culture’s most legendary figures. Featuring musicians, models, actors and athletes, “A Moment in Time: Iconic Images by Harry Benson” runs until July 15.
Born in Glasgow in 1929, Benson started out as a tabloid photographer before landing a job at LIFE magazine. His work has also been published in TIME, Vogue France, Newsweek, People, Architectural Digest, City & CountryAnd vanity lounge, and his subjects have included the Kennedys, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson, Barbara Streisand and Queen Elizabeth II. Making the most of this unique access to high profile subjects, Benson has a knack for producing natural and carefree images.
Henry Benson visiting the exhibition at the Southampton Arts Centre. Photo: Rob Rich.
“Having started my career on Fleet Street in London, I work very fast and try not to influence the person I photograph,” he told Artnet News. “I photograph what I see and what I see must inform.”
Now 93, he’s still snapping photos and has shared a behind-the-scenes look at his most exciting jobs in a new documentary from Magnolia Pictures. Harry Benson: shoot first.
One of Benson’s best-known images is an action shot of the Beatles having a pillow fight at the George V Hotel in Paris in 1964. The band’s good spirits must have been boosted that night by the news that I want to hold your hand had topped the US charts and they were invited to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Benson traveled with them on their US tour and never returned to the UK
Two decades later, in 1992, he visited Truman Capote near his summer home in Wainscott, Long Island and captured the writer’s carefree excitement as he strode down the dunes towards the beach. . “Truman was a tough man who was always willing to do a favor for a photograph; we really miss him,” Benson said in a press release.
Truman Capote in the sand near his summer home on Long Island in 1982. Photo: © Harry Benson.
One day in 1971, Benson was walking home from the offices of Life magazine when he saw Francis Coppola chatting with Al Pacino and Diane Keaton outside Radio City Music Hall. Instinctively, he grabbed his camera and within moments he had a behind-the-scenes photo from the set of The Godfatherwhich remains one of the most famous films of all time.
Al Pacino and Diane Keaton speaking to Francis Ford Coppola on the set of The Godfather in 1971. Photo: © Harry Benson.
In one shot from 1978, New York’s breathtaking skyline framing the Twin Towers is as much about the artist as it is about actress and singer Liza Minnelli and her friend, the famous fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, known primarily as Halston. The couple are seen sharing a moment of laughter in their studio on the 21st floor of the Olympic Tower.
Actress and singer Liza Minnelli with her friend, fashion designer Halston, in New York in 1978. Photo: © Harry Benson.
Among the many musicians and rock stars who have posed for Benson’s camera is The rolling stones singer Mick Jagger, performing at Madison Square Gardens in 1969. Memorably, Tina Turner and Janis Joplin also took the stage as opening acts.
Portrait of Mick Jagger in 1969. Photo: © Harry Benson.
Benson also turned his lens to the magazine world, authoring a portrait of one of his greatest titans, Diana Vreeland. The Paris-born fashion editor served as editor-in-chief of American vogue from 1963 to 1971 and later special consultant to the Costume Institute as Met.
Portrait of former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. Photo: ©Harry Benson.
The enthusiastic shouts and cheers of pupils at Harrow School in London take center stage in a photograph documenting Sir Winston Churchill’s visit to his alma mater in 1960. The boys greeted their former Prime Minister with an updated rendition day of their school song, adding the line “and Churchill’s name will be acclaimed with each new generation.
Sir Winston Churchill visits his school alma mater Harrow in 1960. Photo: © Harry Benson.
“A Moment in Time: Iconic Images by Harry Benson” is on view until July 15 at the Southampton Arts Center.
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