Famed Photog Harry Benson on the ScotlandWeek Beat

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Saturday, 10 April 2010 17:56

Written by Frank Lovece

When a body meets a body comin' through the rye, you can be sure Harry Benson has been there and photographed that. The Glasgow-born photojournalist, who famously came to the U.S. with The Beatles in 1964, in the very same Pan Am jetliner that touched down amid throngs of young fans at the newly christened John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, has photographed every sitting and former president from Eisenhower on.

That's a Benson portrait of Ron and Nancy Reagan dancing on the cover of Vanity Fair — and as photographer for Life magazine and others snapped newsworthy events from Elizabeth Taylor's cancer recovery to Hurricane Katrina. Among his many honors and awards, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.), the U.K.'s highest civilian honor, in 2009.

So this favorite son of Scotland was a natural to be onboard for ScotlandWeek -- the recent cultural celebration in cities across the U.S. and Canada. Among the events held across the continent, showcasing Scotland as a tourist and business destination, was the Harry Benson Retrospective Exhibition in Manhattan's gallery-filled Soho district (102 Greene St. 3/27 - 4/10, 2010).

There, alongside Scotland's Minster for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, and his devoted wife, Gigi, the 81-year-old imaging legend took time out from this latest in a long string of solo shows to talk about his life and art — and, of course, about being Scottish.

Q. What makes this show different from all the many, many exhibitions you've done?

Harry Benson: It's to do something for Scotland here, you know. I owe an awful lot to Scotland. They also owe me a lot of money. No, I'm joking you. The Irish and the Puerto Ricans, everybody has their day, but Scotland always kept a low profile and we have more to offer than a bunch of Irish drunks. Only a joke.

Q. Your upcoming book is called New Yorkers, set here in your adopted city. Can you talk about it?

HB: I'll be putting some Scottish people in it; people with Scottish ancestry. We're wonderful people; most of the British Army were the Scottish regiments.

Fiona Hyslop: The Scots travel the world and have traveled the world for many years, and indeed obviously helped form the early Americas. The bonds that tie Scotland and America are long and strong and Harry's one of our greatest creative talents. I suspect, Harry, you're one of our most famous Scots-Americans.

HB: That certainly wasn't where I started out in life, believe me. I just wanted to stay on the payroll at the end of the week.

Q: Since we're celebrating both Scotland and New York, what are your favorite places in New York and Scotland.

HB: My favorite place here would probably be [the Upper East Side restaurant and literary hub] Elaine's [1703 2nd Av., NY; 212-534-8103].

Q. And in Scotland?

HB: I like Rogano [11 Exchange Place, Glasgow, Glasgow City G1 3, UK; 0141 248 4055]. It's a real restaurant; it's not just a bunch of kids running it.

FH: Regano always had style and Regano has always been there.

HB: Yes, that's right. When I grew up, it was a place [where if you could eat there] that you knew that you made it.

Q: How long ago did you make a home here?

HB: I came to America with The Beatles in 1964. I came on the same plane. My job was working on [the London newspaper row known as] Fleet Street at the time, and I never went back [to the U.K.] except to show off my mother. But I would go back an awful lot, like three or four times a year. If I was in Europe I always turned right and went up and saw my friends and pals in Glasgow, played golf at Troon, went through to Edinburgh.

Q: Photographers all know the famous Eddie Adams story about the day the Beatles came, and  he was standing with the other photographers on the tarmac saying the best angle, which he wished he could have gotten, would be behind the Beatles coming out the plane – and there you were, exactly there! How did you actually get on the plane?

HB: I was covering them for the London Daily Express.

Q: Were there any other photographers on the plane with you?

HB: No.

Q: How did you manage to be the only one?

HB: [Being] very clever, very smart. I wormed my way into [the inner circle of] The Beatles; I got very close to them.

Q. Did you know [Beatles manager and impresario] Brian Epstein?

HB: Oh, yes. Epstein was a very nice man, meaning he never put any obstacles in your way and he was open and let anybody that was legitimate get to them. Which is one of the reasons for their success, that anybody could get to them.

Q: What was the moment when you knew you were going to get on the plane?

HB: I knew about a week before I was all right.

Q: Was it just asking and they said okay? Was it as simple as that?

HB: You know who else was on the plane? [Legendary record producer] Phil Spector.

Q: That must have been fun.

HB: See, when you're working, it's not funny. It's dead serious, because you're working on deadlines. It's just to stay as close as you can to any subject.

Q: Sean Connery's another favorite son and has done a lot to support Scotland and you no doubt have photographed Sean over the years and gotten to know him.

HB: I know him, but I don't know him. I don't get that close to celebrities at all. Once I'm finished with them I'm finished. And the reason for that is I don't want someone like Sean Connery saying to me over dinner, "Oh, Harry, that picture of me in the bubble bath, please don't use it." [If that were to happen,] now I've got a problem with a good friend. Once I'm finished, I'm out of Dodge.

Q: The transition to digital photography happened late in your career. How did you adapt to it?

HB: I had to. And it's wonderful. When I go to colleges and I give talks they ask me about it, but you know, all I can say about it is it's magic. How can you explain it? What it's done is made everybody able to take a photograph, and a good photograph. Before you would send pictures and they'd all come back crappy.

Q: Do you use Photoshop, Lightbox?

HB: I don't manipulate, I don't change anything, because that's what's wrong with photography right now in the magazines — you don't know if the picture's a fake or not, and unfortunately, the majority are.

Q: Do you have a favorite picture that's up here?

HB: Of course, it's The Beatles' pillow fight, because that picture [and the prominence it gave him] meant I was coming to America.

FH: That's one thing with Scots, is that they've gone to different places, gone to different countries, and made things happen. That's what the Scots do.

HB: The Scots make things happen, the Scottish people do; that's a fact. They're hardworking and they make things happen.

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