20 November 2009
CUIDE RI CATHY – HARRY BENSON
Monday 23 November, 10pm, BBC ALBA
FROM GRACE KELLY TO THE ASSASSINATION OF ROBERT F KENNEDY – HARRY BENSON TALKS CANDIDLY ABOUT HIS PHOTOGRAPHIC CAREER
Internationally renowned photographer Harry Benson CBE talks candidly about his famous photographs of the assassination of Robert F Kennedy and frontline coverage of the American Civil Rights struggle. To get exclusive shots where no other photographers would ever go, Harry says “I’m a photographer, a very brave one. It’s the Glasgow training!”
In the next programme of the Cuide ri Cathy series on BBC ALBA, Cathy MacDonald spends a day with Harry in New York where he moved to from Glasgow in 1964 following an assignment with The Beatles.
Cathy hears from Harry about the stories behind some of his most famous photographs in the world, meets a variety of respected figures from the American publishing world and accompanies him on some high end photo-shoots including a party with award-winning artist (and granddaughter of Winston Churchill), Edwina Sandys, as well as a magazine shoot with celebrity author Ivanka Trump, (daughter of Donald) who proclaims: “This guy is amazing.”
Harry made his name in Fleet Street in the late 50’s but it was New York where he truly carved out his career taking iconic photographs of every president since Eisenhower to top celebrities including The Beatles, Grace Kelly, Mia Farrow and Michael Jackson to name but a few.
A photographer has ‘one’ picture and to Harry it’s the iconic picture of The Beatles ’Pillow Fight’ – “To this day, it’s my favourite picture, it’s a happy picture.”
However, not all Harry’s pictures have depicted happiness including his frontline coverage of the America Civil Rights struggle. Harry reminisces: “There was one night on the Meredith Freedom March and a friend of mine from the Daily Mirror said ‘Harry take a look behind you’ and right behind me, there it was, the highway patrol getting ready to put tear gas in. They were coming in and just banging it across people’s heads.”
Cathy asks Harry about his famous photographs of the assassination of Robert F Kennedy and how he had the presence of mind to take pictures after he was shot. “I’m in the business” said Harry “Something awful can happen in front of you and I didn’t want to be like the guy in the pub, talking about if I was there, I would have done this - I was in the Ballroom and I was going to go out the door but it was packed and the easiest place to go was where Bobby was going. Bobby had to come down the stairs and when he came down he was only about three or four yards in front of me. So as I’m turning to go, a girl screamed right in front of me and I said to myself this is it. I turned round and Bobby’s slipping to the floor like slow motion. I’ll never forget the screaming.”
Speaking to Cathy, journalist David Friend, formerly of Life, now with Vanity Fair said Harry would go to any lengths to get the right photograph. “My first assignment with Harry was in 1979 and he was shooting out a helicopter with me holding him at an open door to photograph Soviet warships seven miles from the Iranian coast. He then paid the British pilots of that helicopter with a case of Heineken beer not to let CBS News, who were coming next week to get as close as we were, and to try and get them up there when there was fog. So I learned the tricks very early on.”
Bobbi Baker Burrows, director of photography at Life Books speaks highly of Harry, who at nearly 80, is according to Bobbi still as talented at day one. Bobbi said: “One of the most tender stories I ever edited in my whole career was the one Harry did on Elizabeth Taylor. She was going in for brain surgery and Harry had such a remarkable relationship with her that she actually allowed him into the operating room with her, that’s how much she trusted him. Harry captured something that was so tender and so beautiful and intimate.”
Harry hopes to continue working for years to come: “It’s been great, I’ve had a great time and I hope it’s not over. I’ve still got a lot of aggravation in me.”
CUIDE RI CATHY will be broadcast on BBC ALBA on Monday 23 November at 22.00 and is available on Sky channel 168, Freesat channel 110 and live on BBC iplayer.