Harry Benson's America

Library Journal

The extraordinarily varied accomplishments of Scottish photographer Harry Benson are often whittled down to his famous documentation of the Beatles's 1964 American tour and his dozens of People Weekly covers. To reduce his four-decade career in such a way is unjust; since he first picked up a camera as a young boy in postwar Glasgow, Benson has had an uncanny knack for not only being in the right place at the right time but also eloquently recording his surroundings, documenting many of modern history's major political and social events. This compelling book thoroughly demonstrates his rare quality, beginning with the endpaper still life of dozens of hotel keys that the peripatetic photojournalist has kept throughout the years. This image, a banal view laden with implications, is the perfect opener. Nearly everything else a photography lover or 20th-century culture vulture would want is here as well: celebrity portraits (with an emphasis on the Kennedys and their diaspora), high and low points in the Civil Rights Movement, and more recent images of war and violence-including the dust cloud that rose over Manhattan on 9/11. In July, American Photo magazine will bestow on Benson the American Photo Achievement in Photography Award. An engrossing and entertaining overview of an artist deserving greater renown, this book is highly recommended.-Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.