Harry Benson
{{Short description|Scottish photographer}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
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{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| honorific_suffix = CBE
| image = File:Harry Benson.jpg
| caption = Harry Benson in 2019 in San Francisco
|birth_name = Harry James Benson
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1929|12|02}}
| birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland
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| occupation = Photographer
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| notable_works = The Beatles inaugural trip to the United States (1964)
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| awards = Lifetime Achievement Award, Scottish Press Photography Awards
| website = {{URL|harrybenson.com}}
}}
Harry James Benson CBE (born 2 December 1929) is a Scottish photographer. His photographs of celebrities have been published in magazines. He has published several books and won a number of prominent awards.
Life and work
File:Reagan with Harry Benson.jpg poses for Benson at The Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles (1987, photo by Pete Souza)]]
Benson was born in Glasgow and raised in Troon, Scotland.
His pictures have appeared in Life,He officially joined the staff 1 January 1973, just before Life suspended weekly publication 29 December 1972, and thereafter he contributed to the monthly publication{{Citation | author1=Loengard, John | title=Life photographers : what they saw | year=1998 | publication-date=1998 | publisher=Little, Brown | isbn=978-0-8212-2455-7 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/lifephotographer0000loen }} Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker.{{cite web|last1=Elbies|first1=Jeffrey|title=Harry Benson's America|url=http://www.popphoto.com/how-to/2008/12/harry-bensons-america|website=Popular Photography|date=17 December 2008 |publisher=Bonnier Corp|accessdate=21 February 2015}} He took over a hundred cover shots for People.
Benson was assigned to travel with The Beatles on their inaugural American tour in 1964. One of his most recognisable images shows the band in a gleeful pillow fight at the hotel Georges V{{cite web | url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/harry-benson-s-photos-of-the-beatles-sparked-career-1.2428648 | title=Harry Benson's photos of the Beatles sparked career | publisher=CBC News | date=16 November 2013 | accessdate=5 February 2014 | author=Mitsui, Evan}}{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCSVeKLxAoE |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211214/HCSVeKLxAoE |archive-date=2021-12-14 |url-status=live| title=Photographer Harry Benson on Working with The Beatles | work=The Hollywood Reporter | date=25 June 2012 | accessdate=2 December 2014 }}{{cbignore}} in Paris.{{cite web | url=http://people.com/movies/harry-benson-documentary-iconic-beatles-photo/| title=The Beatles' Breakout Moment: The Story Behind This Famous Throwback Photo| date=1 December 2016 | accessdate=3 December 2016 }} Other celebrities Benson has photographed include Bobby Fischer, Michael Jackson, who allowed him access to his bedroom, and Elizabeth Taylor, whom Benson photographed before and after her brain surgery. He has also photographed political figures, including every U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, and covered war zones. Benson was standing next to Robert F. Kennedy when the senator was shot on 5 June 1968 and has remarked on the difficulty of steeling himself to document the historic moment: "I kept telling myself 'this is for history, pull yourself together, fail tomorrow, not today.'"{{cite web|last1=Benson|first1=Harry|title=RFK's Assassination, The Reagans Dancing, The Clintons Kissing: The Photographs Of Harry Benson|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-benson/rfks-assassination-the-re_b_387359.html|website=HuffPost Books|date=18 March 2010 |publisher=TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.|accessdate=21 February 2015}}
Benson has been the subject of many exhibitions, including one organised by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.{{cite web | url=http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/benson/ | title=Harry Benson: Being There | publisher=Exhibit | accessdate=5 February 2014}}
Benson was the recipient of the 2005 Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Portrait Photography and the 2005 American Photo Award for Photography.{{cite web|title=Being There – Harry Benson's Fifty Years of Photojournalism|website=National Galleries of Scotland|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/being-there/about-the-show-4365|accessdate=21 February 2015}} He has twice been named Magazine Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association (1981 and 1985).{{cite web|title=Harry Benson|url=http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/contributors/explorers/benson_bio.shtml|website=Canon DLC|publisher=Canon U.S.A., Inc.|accessdate=21 February 2015}} He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Scottish Press Photography Awards in April 2006. Benson was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2009. Benson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=58929 |date=31 December 2008 |page=24 |supp=y }} In 2014 he took an official photographic portrait of the Queen, commissioned by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. This was more than fifty years after his first portrait of the Queen, taken when she opened a coal mine in 1957.{{cite news|title=The Queen's new portrait – 50 years after Harry Benson's first photograph of Her Majesty|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/10937573/The-Queens-new-portrait-50-years-after-Harry-Bensons-first-photograph-of-Her-Majesty.html|work=The Daily Telegraph}}
He is the subject of a BBC Scotland documentary titled Photography: Harry Benson (1985), directed by Ken MacGregor and written by William McIlvanney{{cite web|title=Photography: Harry Benson (1985)|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b7577af42|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221051123/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b7577af42|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 February 2015|website=BFI Film Forever|publisher=British Film Institute|accessdate=21 February 2015}} and of the 2015 documentary Shoot First directed by Matthew Miele and Justin Bare.
He and his wife, Gigi, have two daughters: the American actress Wendy Benson and Tessa Benson. Harry has 3 grandchildren and lives in New York and Palm Beach, Florida. His nephew was the journalist Ross Benson.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/mar/10/guardianobituaries.pressandpublishing |title=Ross Benson: Award winning journalist |last=Wilson |first=Christopher |date=10 Mar 2005|website=The Guardian |access-date=8 February 2020}}
Collections
Exhibitions
- 2007 - Harry Benson: Being There, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian - Washington, DC{{cite web |title=Harry Benson: Being There |url=https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/harry-benson-being-there%3Aevent-exhib-4506 |website=Smithsonian |accessdate=10 September 2020}}
- 2019 - The World as Seen by Harry Benson, Holden Luntz Gallery - Palm Beach, Florida{{cite web |title=The World as Seen by Harry Benson |url=https://www.all-about-photo.com/photo-events/photo-exhibition/1467/the-world-as-seen-by-harry-benson |website=All About Photo |accessdate=10 September 2020}}
- 2019 - Behind the Scenes, Staley Wise Gallery - New York, New York.{{cite web |title=Harry Benson - Behind The Scenes |url=https://www.staleywise.com/exhibitions/harry-benson4/press-release |website=Staley Wise Gallery |accessdate=10 September 2020}}
- 2020 - Casual Conversations: The Vanity Fair Talks (Harry Benson and David Friend), Annenberg Photography Space - Los Angeles, California{{cite web |title=Casual Conversations: The Vanity Fair Talks |url=https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/events/casual-conversations-harry-benson-and-david-friend/ |website=Annenberg Photography Foundation |accessdate=10 September 2020}}
Books
- Harry Benson: 50 Years in Pictures. 2001. {{ISBN|0-8109-4171-6}}
- Once there was a way... Photographs of the Beatles. 2003. {{ISBN|0-8109-4643-2}}
- Harry Benson's America. 2005. {{ISBN|0-8109-5896-1}}
- Being There: Harry Benson's Fifty Years of Photojournalism. 2006. {{ISBN|1-903278-82-1}}
- Harry Benson's Glasgow. 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-84502-236-5}}
- Harry Benson. The Beatles. Cologne: Taschen, 2013. {{ISBN|978-3-8365-3322-5}}
References
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External links
- {{Official website|www.harrybenson.com}}
- [http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0112/hb_intro.htm On the Road with Harry Benson] interview with video and [http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0112/hb_index.htm slideshow] from The Digital Journalist
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Category:British photojournalists
Category:20th-century Scottish photographers
Category:21st-century Scottish photographers
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Photographers from Glasgow
Category:British fashion photographers