Tonight, Harry Benson will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual International Center of Photography (ICP) Infinity Awards. Harry is a fabulous photographer and one of the greatest photoreporters of his generation. Curiously, in France, he is rather little known, and hasn’t had a decent presentation or retrospective at any foundation, festival, or gallery in this country. Take a look at today’s edition devoted to the photographer and at a selection of images he made over the course of five decades: each is an entry point into History. This Scottish photographer, photojournalist, and official paparazzo is obsessed with one thing only: producing a successful image, going where his subject hadn’t dared to venture, and coming out with a shot that no one believed was possible!
Jean-Jacques Naudet
Harry Benson is the world heavyweight champion: the photojournalist who has outshot his opponents, outlasted the field, and outperformed, day in and day out, over 65 years behind the camera. No one alive has photographed more momentous news-breaking images (from civil rights marches to race riots to assassinations to conflicts around the globe—including the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall) and more classic portraits (including 12 presidents, 4 Beatles, and countless iconic personalities) and more photo essays of greater range. Little wonder that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II awarded him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for service to photography—and that the ICP has now followed suit with its 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award. As Shakespeare himself declared of King Harry in Henry V:
Oh, for a muse of fire that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels,
Leashed like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire
Crouch for employment…
David Friend
Watch the trailer of the film Harry Benson: Shoot First, now playing on iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, and Playstation Store.
Trailer Harry Benson: Shoot First from L’Oeil de la photographie on Vimeo.
