1961

Kennedy visited Paris in the summer of his first year as president, and Parisians lined the streets cheering and craning for a glimpse of him riding with the French president in an open car. Guards in their plumed helmets and gold epaulets on their galloping horses surrounded the procession.

John Kennedy Jr. asked Benson for a copy of this photograph for his office at George magazine. He thanked Benson with a note saying, "this was when politics was fun."

• © Harry Benson

1964

The Beatles were on tour in Paris, and Benson was covering the tour for the Express, photographing them at pavement cafés and souvenir shops and during their nightly performances at the Olympia. Benson quickly got to know the band. One evening they were having a drink after a performance at Olympia when Ringo Starr mentioned a pillow fight they had had the night before. Harry was intrigued but as there was a photographer from the Daily Mail sitting with them, kept quiet.

Two nights later he was invited back to their room for more after show drinks. Brian Epstein burst in with a telegram: ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was number one in America. Harry suggested they celebrate with another pillow fight and took what became one of his most iconic photographs.

• © Harry Benson

1964

A week after the legendary pillow fight, Benson was on a flight to New York for their (and his) first trip to the States. Photographer Bill Eppridge remembered being in the assembled press corps, on the tarmac waiting for the stars to arrive. "The plane pulls up to the ramp," Eppridge recalls, "and the door opens. A Pan Am stewardess comes off, and out come the four Beatles. Then this character comes out right behind them, and he starts posing them. Eddie [a colleague] and I looked at each other and said, 'Who is that?' We had no idea. It was Harry Benson's first trip to the United States. It's been going on like that for years. Every time you'd know what the best spot is, who shows up in that spot? Harry Benson."

• © Harry Benson

1964

Harry Benson has photographed many world leaders. This was Winston Churchill's last visit to his old school in Harrow, shortly before he died. The students had put on their new blazers and welcomed him by singing the school song.

• © Harry Benson

1968

After his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr.’s body was laid in state in Atlanta.  Inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the heat was stifling as people cried and mourners passed by the open casket.

• © Harry Benson

1966

As Benson says himself “There’s never been a party like it in New York”. On November 28, 1966, in honour of publisher Katharine Graham, Truman Capote hosted a legendary masked ball, called the Black & White Ball, in the Grand Ballroom of New York City's Plaza Hotel.

It was considered the social event of not only that season but of many to follow. The New York Times and other publications gave it considerable coverage, and Benson covered it for the Express. Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow (who had recently married) went dressed as cats.

• © Harry Benson

1971

The sidewalks had been blocked off outside Radio City Music Hall and it was late at night and very cold as Coppola directed a scene from The Godfather. In the scene, Pacino learns that his father has been shot.

• © Harry Benson

1976

Polanski was the guest editor of the Christmas edition of French Vogue and had asked Harry to do the photography.  The theme was pirates and whilst the stylists were readying the shoot Benson suggested to Polanski he bury him in sand.  They dug a hole and he got in.  Polanski was fine until a large wave took them by surprise.  Benson pretended he was going to get help, but Polanski was apprehensive and told Benson to get him out.

• © Harry Benson

1985

Benson had been allocated the White House map room to photograph the Reagans. He had cued up a song on a tape machine, and as they entered the room, dressed for a black tie state dinner, Harry hit play, blasting out Frank Sinatra’s Nancy with the Laughing Face. The press officers looked alarmed, but the Reagans loved it, obligingly dancing across the room.

It made the cover of Vanity Fair, and copies waltzed off news-stands. In many ways it caught the essence of the Reagans; Ronald Reagan’s appetite for a joke, their folksy romanticism and their residual Hollywood glamour.

• © Harry Benson

1992

The Clinton's share a quiet moment in the backyard of the Governor's Mansion before their hectic campaign schedule began.

• © Harry Benson