IMAGES ©HARRY BENSON

“IF I HADN’T
STAYED UP LATE
WITH THE BEATLES. HARRY BENSON
WAITING FOR JUST HAS WITNESSED IT ALL
THE RIGHT MOMENT, BY ROBERT KIENER
I WOULD NEVER HAVE
GOTTEN THAT PICTURE,
I TOOK IT AT 3 A.M., AND
THEN I WORKED THROUGH
THE NIGHT WASHING MY
NEGATIVES IN MY HOTEL
ROOM BATHTUB.”

70 71
 “Harry Benson? You’re going to interview again as I research Glasgow, Scotland-born
“HARRY BENSON IS THE WORLD Harry Benson?” Liz Smith, the 94-year-old Benson, the world-famous photographer
HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: doyenne of the New York City gossip corps, who’s made iconic images of The Beatles,
asks when I telephone her about her long- Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, and every
THE PHOTOJOURNALIST WHO time friend. “He’s a charmer. You’ll love him. U.S. president since Eisenhower. In the recent
HAS OUTSHOT HIS OPPONENTS, Everybody loves Harry.” documentary “Harry Benson: Shoot First,”
It’s a comment I’ll encounter again and actress Sharon Stone gushes, “I love Harry
OUTLASTED THE FIELD,
AND OUTPERFORMED, DAY
IN DAY OUT, OVER 65 YEARS
BEHIND THE CAMERA.”
—DAVID FRIEND
Former director of photography
Life magazine

72 PPM AG.COM
73
 Benson,” and then after a pause, “I think I’m
half a bump from being in love with Har-
ry Benson.” Neil Leifer, the award-winning
sports photographer and longtime friend
(and friendly adversary) of Benson’s, says,
“Harry is a charmer, but don’t let that friend-
ly manner fool you. He’s as relentless and
versatile a photographer as there is.”

“ALL I DO IS TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS.”

When I meet Benson, 87, at the recent open-
ing of a retrospective of his photography at
Montreal’s Gallery Got, the fabled Benson
charm is on full display. Wearing a Savile Row
tweed jacket punctuated by his trademark
bright green handkerchief, Benson patiently
answers questions from the gaggle of Franco-
phone journalists who’ve come to his open-
ing. He’s generous with his time, and after
answering a question will often ask, “Is that
enough? Do you need any more?” By the
end of the conference he has the roomful of
reporters in the palm of his hand and re-
ceives what surely must be a rarity from this
crowd—a standing ovation.
Later he pulls me aside and confesses he’s
surprised by the turnout. “I didn’t think
many journalists would show up,” he says
in his bordering-on-falsetto Scottish brogue.
When I ask him if he’s serious, he shoots
back, “Dead serious!” His voice rises an octave
and he continues, “I’m insecure. Always have
been. I just don’t think my work is that good.” an article posted this spring on the website In addition to photographing an A-list of “I have always tried to be first-in, first-out,
Benson’s confession is all the more star- The Eye of Photography, he writes, “Harry entertainment mega-stars, he also report- going right away for the heart of a story and
tling given the barrage of accolades he’s re- Benson is the world heavyweight champi- ed on the civil rights riots in the American hanging in there,” says Benson as he flips
ceived for his lifetime of work. His photogra- on: the photojournalist who has outshot his South, conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo, fam- through a book of his iconic photographs.
phy has earned him a CBE (Commander of opponents, outlasted the field, and outper- ine in Somalia, and student protests in Chi- He stops at his much-reproduced 1964 pic-
the Order of the British Empire) from Queen formed, day in day out, over 65 years behind na’s Tiananmen Square. He was in the room ture of The Beatles in Paris’ Hotel George V,
Elizabeth II for his service to photography, the camera.” with Richard Nixon when he resigned, made “The Pillow Fight.” It may be his best known
honorary doctorates, a Lucie Award for life- When I remind Benson that Friend, like images of Martin Luther King at a civil rights photo, the one that he admits will appear in
time achievement in portrait photography, many others, has called him “legendary,” march, and photographed the Berlin Wall the first line of his obituary.
and an International Center of Photography he waves his hand dismissively and says, when it went up and when it came down. “If I hadn’t stayed up late with The Beatles,
Infinity Award in 2017, among other honors. “Don’t be silly. … I’ve always been worried He stood mere feet from Robert Kennedy waiting for just the right moment, I would
He has to his credit more than 40 solo gallery about where my next job was coming from. when he was assassinated. Indeed, he’s been never have gotten that picture,” he says. “I
exhibitions around the world, 14 published Inside, I know who I am. And I’m not legend- called “the Zelig of modern photography.” took it at 3 a.m., and then I worked through
photo books (including “Harry Benson: Per- ary. All I do is take photographs.” As Neil Leifer explains, “Harry may be best the night washing my negatives in my hotel
sons of Interest,” published last month by known for his Beatles photographs, but he’s room bathtub.”
powerHouse Books), and placement of his “I WAS LIKE A RABID DOG.” also a first-class photojournalist.” Striving to get to the middle of events, also
images in the permanent collections of the As his books, exhibitions, and recent docu- If there is one constant in Benson’s work— meant breaking rules, he admits, something
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and mentary illustrate, the octogenarian has photo- from his early days as a struggling newspa- he honed to perfection when working on ultra-
the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. His graphed seemingly everyone who was anyone per photographer in Scotland to his forma- competitive Fleet Street. For example, to get
prints sell for up to $30,000. over the past half century. And he’s traveled al- tive years on London’s Fleet Street to his his evocative image of a soulful Pat Nixon
David Friend is the former director of pho- most everywhere, photographing almost every- decades working for Life, People, and Vanity watching her husband announce his res-
tography for Life magazine, where Benson thing. “I admit I was ambitious,” he says with Fair—it is his ability and insistence, as he ignation in 1974, he broke free from the
was under contract from 1970 to 2000. In a wry smile. “In fact, I was like a rabid dog.” explains, to “be at the center of things.” penned up photographers to get the angle

74 PPM AG.COM PROFE S SION A L PHOTOGR A PHER | DECEMBER 2017 75

 he wanted. “I knew she would be emotional,
and I had to be in just the right spot to catch
that moment,” he remembers. “And I got it.”
On an assignment to photograph Barbara
Streisand while she was performing in New
York City’s Central Park, he left the scrum of
photographers and approached the stage for
a unique angle. He nailed it, then Streisand
glared at him. “I got a great picture that no
one else got, but she wasn’t happy,” re-
members Benson. Spotting him after the
concert, Streisand gave him a piece of her
mind, he says, and it wasn’t a pleasant piece.
Other stories required a lighter touch.
When Life assigned him to photograph a Cal-
ifornia couple, Reg and Maggie Green, who
had donated their son’s organs after he was
killed in Italy, he was gentle yet determined.
“We have been photographed by scores of
professionals but Harry stands out from all
the rest,” remembers Reg Green. “He has a
style and majesty all his own. He was nev-
er perfunctory; with Harry you always felt a
Reprinted from December 2017 Professional Photographer magazine with permission.
76 Copyright ©Professional Photographers of America • www.ppmag.com
PPM AG.COM
piece of art was being created. His pictures
were perfect.”
“THERE ARE NO EXCUSES.”
Reflecting on his years as a photojournalist,
Benson explains that every story, no matter
how difficult the circumstances, presents op-
portunities for success: “There are moments
that a door will open for you. And you have
to be like a dog and rush through it. There
are no excuses. You have to come back with
the goods.”
He left cutthroat Fleet Street for the less
ruthless American media in 1967, which
he likens to “moving to a dude ranch.” He
remained fiercely competitive. A 1984 BBC
documentary described the transition: “The
Doberman still had all its teeth even though
it might have been house trained.”
Studio portraits and fashion photography
hold little interest for Benson. “A great pho-
tograph is a moment in time that can never
happen again,” he explains. “I’m not inter-
ested in making a picture that I can repeat. I
am after the unexpected.”
He loves what Henri Cartier Bresson dub-
bed “the decisive moment,” he explains. And
it was the Robert Louis Stevenson poem,
“From a Railway Carriage,” which describes
the fleeting scenes viewed from a passenger
train, that captivated and inspired him when
he was a schoolboy: “Here is a cart run away
in the road / Lumping along with man and
load; / And here is a mill and there is a river:
/ Each a glimpse and gone for ever!”
After reading aloud the poem, which he’s
read hundreds of times since grade school,
he says, “That last line, ‘Each a glimpse and
gone forever,’ has always stuck with me and
is the real key to my photography. I am always
hoping to capture that unique moment that
cannot be duplicated, that special instant
that comes and then vanishes like a comet.” •
Robert Kiener is a writer in Vermont.
On ppmag.com
How Harry Benson captured the
assassination of Bobby Kennedy
ppmag.com/witness-to-history
PROFE S SION A L PHOTOGR A PHER | DECEMBER 2017