Harry Benson has seen it all. The Scottish photographer, who bootstrapped his way up from Fleet Street tabloids to glossy megamagazines in New York, has made some of the most iconic images of the last half-century. He captured the Berlin Wall going up in 1961 and being torn down 28 years later. He photographed the Beatles’ American television debut on Ed Sullivan in 1964, and he snagged a jailhouse session with John Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman in 1986. He shot Donald Trump perched on a gold bed with Ivana in 1987, holding $1 million in the money room at the Trump Taj Mahal in 1990, and, in July 2016, in the midst of his White House run.
The fascinating life of Benson, who turns 87 on Friday, is the subject of the documentary “Harry Benson: Shoot First,” directed by Matthew Miele and Justin Bare and opening on Dec. 9. The movie clicks through Benson’s greatest shots, while telling the stories behind them via commentary from people such as Trump, Carl Bernstein and Benson himself.
In 1997, he focused his camera on Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch bedroom. The man posed casually on a red-upholstered throne and Benson remained non-judgmental. “I wasn’t looking to debunk him,” Benson tells The Post. “I photograph what I see. It has to be real, and Michael was the King of Pop.”
Here the teaser for “Harry Benson: Shoot First”:
SOURCE: New York Post