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Harry Benson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other people named Harry Benson, seeHarry Benson (disambiguation).
Harry Benson
CBE
Harry Benson in 2019 in San Francisco
Born
Harry James Benson

(1929-12-02)2 December 1929(age 94)
Glasgow,Scotland
OccupationPhotographer
Notable workThe Beatles inaugural trip to the United States (1964)
AwardsLifetime Achievement Award, Scottish Press Photography Awards
Websiteharrybenson.com

Harry James BensonCBE(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

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PresidentRonald Reaganposes for Benson atThe Century Plaza HotelinLos Angeles(1987, photo byPete Souza)

Benson was born inGlasgowand raised in Troon, Scotland.

His pictures have appeared inLife,[1]Vanity Fair,andThe New Yorker.[2]He took over a hundred cover shots forPeople.

Benson was assigned to travel withThe Beatleson 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[3][4]in Paris.[5]Other celebrities Benson has photographed includeBobby Fischer,Michael Jackson,who allowed him access to his bedroom, andElizabeth Taylor,whom Benson photographed before and after her brain surgery. He has also photographed political figures, including every U.S. president sinceDwight D. Eisenhower,and covered war zones. Benson was standing next toRobert F. Kennedywhen the senatorwas shot on 5 June 1968and 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.'"[6]

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.[7]

Benson was the recipient of the 2005Lucie Awardfor Lifetime Achievement in Portrait Photography and the 2005 American Photo Award for Photography.[8]He has twice been named Magazine Photographer of the Year by theNational Press Photographers Association(1981 and 1985).[9]He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Scottish Press Photography Awards in April 2006.[9]Benson was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of theRoyal Photographic Societyin 2009. Benson was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire(CBE) in the2009 New Year Honours.[10]In 2014 he took an official photographic portrait of the Queen, commissioned by theScottish 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.[11]

He is the subject of aBBC Scotlanddocumentary titledPhotography: Harry Benson (1985),directed by Ken MacGregor and written by William McIlvanney[12]and of the 2015 documentaryShoot Firstdirected by Matthew Miele and Justin Bare.

He and his wife, Gigi, have two daughters: the American actressWendy Bensonand Tessa Benson. Harry has 3 grandchildren and lives in New York and Palm Beach, Florida. His nephew was the journalistRoss Benson.[13]

Collections

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Exhibitions

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  • 2007 -Harry Benson: Being There,National Portrait Gallery,Smithsonian- Washington, DC[15]
  • 2019 -The World as Seen by Harry Benson,Holden Luntz Gallery -Palm Beach, Florida[16]
  • 2019 -Behind the Scenes,Staley Wise Gallery - New York, New York.[17]
  • 2020 -Casual Conversations: The Vanity Fair Talks(Harry Benson and David Friend), Annenberg Photography Space - Los Angeles, California[18]

Books

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  • Harry Benson: 50 Years in Pictures.2001.ISBN0-8109-4171-6
  • Once there was a way... Photographs of the Beatles.2003.ISBN0-8109-4643-2
  • Harry Benson's America.2005.ISBN0-8109-5896-1
  • Being There: Harry Benson's Fifty Years of Photojournalism.2006.ISBN1-903278-82-1
  • Harry Benson's Glasgow.2007.ISBN978-1-84502-236-5
  • Harry Benson. The Beatles.Cologne:Taschen,2013.ISBN978-3-8365-3322-5

References

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  1. ^He officially joined the staff 1 January 1973, just before Life suspended weekly publication 29 December 1972, and thereafter he contributed to the monthly publicationLoengard, John (1998),Life photographers: what they saw,Little, Brown,ISBN978-0-8212-2455-7
  2. ^Elbies, Jeffrey (17 December 2008)."Harry Benson's America".Popular Photography.Bonnier Corp.Retrieved21 February2015.
  3. ^Mitsui, Evan (16 November 2013)."Harry Benson's photos of the Beatles sparked career".CBC News.Retrieved5 February2014.
  4. ^"Photographer Harry Benson on Working with The Beatles".The Hollywood Reporter.25 June 2012.Archivedfrom the original on 14 December 2021.Retrieved2 December2014.
  5. ^"The Beatles' Breakout Moment: The Story Behind This Famous Throwback Photo".1 December 2016.Retrieved3 December2016.
  6. ^Benson, Harry (18 March 2010)."RFK's Assassination, The Reagans Dancing, The Clintons Kissing: The Photographs Of Harry Benson".HuffPost Books.TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.Retrieved21 February2015.
  7. ^"Being There – Harry Benson's Fifty Years of Photojournalism".National Galleries of Scotland.Retrieved21 February2015.
  8. ^ab"Harry Benson".Canon DLC.Canon U.S.A., Inc.Retrieved21 February2015.
  9. ^"No. 58929".The London Gazette(Supplement). 31 December 2008. p. 24.
  10. ^"The Queen's new portrait – 50 years after Harry Benson's first photograph of Her Majesty".The Daily Telegraph.
  11. ^"Photography: Harry Benson (1985)".BFI Film Forever.British Film Institute. Archived fromthe originalon 21 February 2015.Retrieved21 February2015.
  12. ^Wilson, Christopher (10 March 2005)."Ross Benson: Award winning journalist".The Guardian.Retrieved8 February2020.
  13. ^"Harry Benson".International Photography of Fame.Retrieved20 February2020.
  14. ^"Harry Benson: Being There".Smithsonian.Retrieved10 September2020.
  15. ^"The World as Seen by Harry Benson".All About Photo.Retrieved10 September2020.
  16. ^"Harry Benson - Behind The Scenes".Staley Wise Gallery.Retrieved10 September2020.
  17. ^"Casual Conversations: The Vanity Fair Talks".Annenberg Photography Foundation.Retrieved10 September2020.
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