Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Harry Benson
Aired January 19, 2002 - 08:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: You've probably seen his work over the years but never knew the man behind the photographs.
His name is Harry Benson and he recently took this photograph of the USS Theodore Roosevelt -- there it is -- which was, of course, featured in "Vanity Fair." Wow. But there are plenty more just like it in this book, profiling 50 years of Benson's work, work we're very interested in talking about this morning with the photojournalist himself.
Thank you for being with us Mr. Benson.
HARRY BENSON, PHOTOGRAPHER: Oh, it's a pleasure. A pleasure.
CALLAWAY: We're going to show a lot of your photographs while I'm interviewing you and if you would like to comment on some of them, we would appreciate it. But what made you decide to be a photographer? You started so young.
BENSON: Well, basically I left school at 13 and, you know, Scottish education is very tough. I had to do French, Latin and Greek. And my head basically wasn't above a soccer ball. That was my ambition, was to play for Scotland and goal, I mean.
But photography, I was good at art but not great. But photography was -- and also growing up in Scotland, Glasgow during the war, well, we used to get bombed quite a bit that you wanted to be in the center of things, the drama of it.
CALLAWAY: Well, we're personally glad, I'm personally glad that you gave up soccer to become a photographer.
BENSON: So am I.
CALLAWAY: Let's take a look at some of your photographs. And, of course, these are in your book. This is President John F. Kennedy.
BENSON: That's when he went to Paris the first time and he, remember he said that he was here to accompany his wife to Paris and that she took Paris by storm, which is really something, you know, because, you know, they dress rather well there. That's Jackie hanging out and at her sister Lee's house in London when we were there.
CALLAWAY: Looking lovely as ever.
BENSON: Looking terrific.
CALLAWAY: Yes.
BENSON: Yes.
CALLAWAY: Winston Churchill.
BENSON: This was Churchill's last visit to his old school in Harrow (ph) and the students had put on their new vests and the school song, which went something like "And Churchill's name shall win acclaim through each new generation." And then the old man died not long after that.
CALLAWAY: What a great photograph. Look at the joy on their face.
BENSON: Well, it's always somebody I did photograph.
CALLAWAY: And the Beatles having a pillow fight. Where was this taken? Is this, where was this shot taken?
BENSON: It was taken in Paris in 1964. And it just so happens it was the night they were told they were coming to America.
CALLAWAY: No wonder they're happy.
BENSON: Yes. Brian Epstein had walked in about an hour before and said "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is number one.
CALLAWAY: Oh.
BENSON: And they were very happy. So was I. I came to America, too, you know?
CALLAWAY: Well, let's get back to the Beatles photograph if we can quickly. Someone, actually I read that that, the Beatles, the pillow fight photographs are your favorite. Is that true?
BENSON: Well, it is. It's a happy picture and I can look at it all the time. And it's, you know, it's the greatest group in the history of pop culture. I think they had a tremendous impact and I happened to have been rather close to them and I happened to have done it rather well at that time.
CALLAWAY: I was going to ask you, how do you get into all these places? I mean you're there in the hotel room with the Beatles in the photograph we show briefly, the Beatles with Cassius Clay, of course, Muhammad Ali.
BENSON: Oh, it's complete charm. No, it's...
CALLAWAY: Complete charm got you in, is that what you said?
BENSON: Complete charm. No, you will it. You will it. You will it. You want it. You want it and it's a big, you realize it's a big story. And the music was so great. I mean it's the music.
CALLAWAY: But you were all...
BENSON: You wouldn't...
CALLAWAY: I'm sorry for interrupting. I just want to make sure we get through some of these photographs here. You also have been there for some historical events and covered some things certainly not as fun as covering the Beatles.
BENSON: Well, that's Clay there. That's when he won the title -- became...
CALLAWAY: But there's the Boston Strangler.
BENSON: There's the Boston Strangler, yes.
CALLAWAY: That's an unusual photograph, the angle of that. Where were you?
BENSON: Well, they were taking him down the stairs and I kind of, you know, young and pushy, I got myself in front, you know, just like an every day press photographer, you know? That's what I was.
CALLAWAY: And the next one is, of course, Robert Kennedy, the assassination at the Ambassador Hotel. You were there.
BENSON: Yes, but this is something you live with, that one day something like this is going to happen. And you always wonder what you would do if you were there. Now I'm there and it's like mess up tomorrow, but get it today. You have to. I just kept thinking about exposures.
CALLAWAY: There's Ethel Kennedy.
BENSON: There's Ethel screaming, screaming for air. It was a nightmare in the place. The room was all moving and mind you, you know, Dallas was only about a few months away, you know, a couple of years, you know?
CALLAWAY: Yes, and this is a black and white photograph, but that, of course, is the blood of Robert Kennedy.
BENSON: That's Bobby, although it would go away. They put, put the hat on the blood.
CALLAWAY: How difficult is it to keep shooting in a scene that is that chaotic?
BENSON: Well, you become like a, you know, a horse with blinkers. You kind of shut yourself off and, you know, and some day you'll get, one day you'll get out of it, you know? But it's a strange thing I find about violence is I come out stronger than what I went in kind of emotionally. It's a thing -- that's Martin Luther King dead in Atlanta with a little girl there.
CALLAWAY: Back in 1968. And the next one I believe is O.J. Simpson at Shea Stadium.
BENSON: Shea Stadium. He just won his, he just won I think 2004 yards for the season. He got the record. He got the record. Then he was...
CALLAWAY: Was he in the shower there, Mr. Benson?
BENSON: He was in the shower and what happened was that, you know...
CALLAWAY: You get in everywhere.
BENSON: I've been in -- but what happened was that, you know, all the press kept him, kept all the team waiting and they were all waiting in a bus, you know? They were furious. They were very upset.
CALLAWAY: And now we have Joe Namath.
BENSON: Namath. Well, Namath was a real, the real hero, the Broadway Joe was, you know, was a real New York character.
CALLAWAY: Let's skip a few...
BENSON: And he had injured his arm this day. He showed, somebody jumped on top of him, you know, which they did every week, you know? He couldn't move because of his bad legs. He was a great guy, though.
CALLAWAY: And still is, I bet. Let's go to Truman Capote now and 1980. I think we have a photograph of Capote. Do we have that? Let's see. There it is. Oh, now tell us about -- this was in, is this New Orleans?
BENSON: In New Orleans. He was a tough little guy, you know? People thought that he was funny, a little voice, mine's funny, too, but he was, you know, he was a weak character. I mean he was a tough guy, believe me. I remember he had went into a bar and we had, where he was going to have a drink and he said what do you want, Harry? I said I'll have what you're having. Oh, it was awful when he said no wonder, don't drink a man's drink. It was terrible. It was like...
CALLAWAY: And -- go ahead and finish your thought, sir. It was like what?
BENSON: Oh, no, it was like gasoline. God knows, actually, it was a mixture of brandy, gin, whisky. That's what it was.
CALLAWAY: Ouch.
BENSON: He was, yes. Then he said oh, Harry, I told you not to drink a man's drink, you know.
CALLAWAY: All right, now let's move on to the Kennedy family again. A happy day.
BENSON: A happy day. That's... CALLAWAY: Covering the wedding.
BENSON: Covering the wedding. Jackie and Caroline asked me to do the wedding for them. But this was the picture I liked the best because it gave a picture of, you know, the Kennedy country, the Martha's Vineyard and, you know, that, you know, the, you know, where they lived.
CALLAWAY: It just seems, Mr. Benson, that you've become so close with the subjects that you have shot over the years, over your career. I mean being invited to the wedding, being asked to shoot it. Did you ever imagine that you would be that connected to some of the subjects that you ended up shooting throughout your career when you started?
BENSON: I don't really become connected. I don't really. I'm, when I'm finished with them I'm finished with them. I don't want to talk to them. I don't want to take a nice picture of somebody who is, who I'm having dinner with and says oh, by the way, Harry, don't use that picture of me in my bubble bath. You know, bang goes your best picture. So I...
CALLAWAY: It's all about your work, then?
BENSON: Well, absolutely. I mean the only reason, you know, that I'm there is because I'm carrying a great magazine like "Vanity Fair" and or "Life" in my back pocket, you know?
CALLAWAY: This is Elizabeth Taylor in 1992. And let's go quickly to the next photograph that you shot of Elizabeth Taylor. Do we have that one? Let's see, it's coming up here. This is -- oh, what a difference, after her brain tumor surgery, huh?
BENSON: Absolutely. Yes, this was just about basically, you know, like 18 hours after it. But anyway, when I heard she was going into hospital, I phoned the publicist and I said I would like to photograph, you know, Elizabeth before and after. And the publicist said oh my god, how could you ask such a thing? I said well, I mean do yourself a favor, ask Elizabeth, because I know she does what she wants. And of course a message came back that I could get 10 minutes, not only could I do it before, I could do it during, which I said no thank you, you know?
CALLAWAY: It never hurts to ask, then, I guess is our lesson from you today.
BENSON: Yes. There was a terrible...
CALLAWAY: They let you in.
BENSON: There was a terrible big mark across her head.
CALLAWAY: We so enjoyed your photographs. We're going to bump out on some of those as we leave. Harry Benson: Fifty Years In Pictures," a book out now. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us and your photographs.
BENSON: Thank you very much. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
