Harry Benson's America

Award-winning photographer Harry Benson came to America in 1964 with the Beatles and knew he never wanted to leave. Working for the most popular magazines in the country-Life, People, The New Yorker, Van authority Fair-he has photographed everyone and everything, from the famous to the infamous, from the sublime to the absurd, from Bob Guccione styling a model to Truman Capote dancing with transvestites. Whether they are images of Steven Spielberg, Richard Nixon, or Andy Warhol, or shots of music concerts, political rallies, or sports events, the pictures Benson has gathered in this book capture the essence of this country's pop culture over the last four decades.

No story is too small and no personality too big for the finest photographic chronicler of America's constantly changing and vastly entertaining public spectacle-a realm where success and achievement only sometimes go hand-in-hand. More irreverent than his previous books, Harry Benson's America shows a side of the photographer's work that hasn't been seen before, shedding new light on our nation in turn.

"Benson's America is a landscape created out of portraits-photographs that capture the intimate moments of celebrity giants, from Michael Jackson to Bob Hope, as well as the lives of anonymous men and women on streets, in night clubs and on battlefields. The elegant, full-page photos are not organized by chronology or subject matter; rather, they're presented as a patchwork collage of American culture. For example, a striking 1977 photograph of Donny and Marie Osmond sitting silently at a kitchen table, focused only on their sandwiches, sits opposite a photograph of two shirtless, tattooed marines grinning for the camera in 2001. The photographs span 40 years; Benson, who was raised in Scotland, fell in love with the U.S. on his first visit in 1964 while traveling with the Beatles. In his career working for Life, People and the New Yorker, he has photographed the most well-known politicians, actors and musicians, capturing them both in pensive moments and in the middle of large, adoring crowds. Some of the photos, like a snapshot of a sad Frank Sinatra standing alone in a doorway, are haunting in their intimacy, while others are fun and slightly odd, like the one of Cyndi Lauper in red fishnet stockings and flaming hair posing with her conservatively dressed grandparents in 1984. The nearly 200 photographs in this coffee-table book are diverse, weird and intriguing, providing insight into the unique personalities that define Benson's America. " Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Benson's color and black & white photographs, dating from the 1960s to the 2000s, are displayed in this unusually shaped (12.25x9.25") volume. The images consist of primarily environmental portraits of the famous and not-so-famous, many of which were taken for popular magazines such as Life, People, and Vanity Fair. The book concludes with brief biographical text accompanying thumbnail images of the photographs.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Whether they are images of Steven Spielberg, Richard Nixon, or Andy Warhol, or shots of music concerts, political rallies, or sports events, the pictures Benson has gathered in this book capture the essence of this country's pop culture over the last four decades.