The Photographer in the Thick of Things

A new exhibition of Harry Benson’s images of presidents, celebrities, and indelible moments.

“Berlin Kiss”—a couple kissing in a Berlin bar on the seventh anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Photo by Harry Benson)

Harry Benson: Washington, D.C.—Iconic Photographs for the Nation’s Capital
Next to Capital One Arena (707–709 7th Street NW, Washington, D.C.)
through late 2025

AT THE PEAK OF MASS MEDIA in the middle of the twentieth century—when there were five major Hollywood studios, two major radio networks and fledgling television networks, and advertising-dependent print publications with circulations in the millions—a new kind of visual storytelling emerged, putting vivid photography front and center.

Life magazine was the major force behind this mode of ‘broadcasting’ of America’s visual culture, from the magazine’s relaunch under Henry Luce in 1936 until television assumed the oracular mantle in the 1960s. Luce defined the periodical’s purpose as “to see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events . . . to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed”—with an emphasis on see. Other magazines might stress the written word; for Luce’s Life, it was the images that mattered most. Its pages were filled by such legends of midcentury photography as Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Younger than those giants, photographer Harry Benson was born in Scotland in 1929, and so grew up too late for his work to run in Life’s heyday. But his photos did eventually appear in the magazine’s pages—and in Vanity Fair and People and elsewhere—and he would go on to spend decades under contract with Life. Benson’s strength was capturing images of the A-listers who shaped American life and culture. “I was like a rabid dog,” he said. “I have always tried to be first-in, first-out, going right away for the heart of the story and hanging in there.” He has talked about wanting to be “at the center” of things, “not the edges.”

Benson’s camera was in the room to capture Richard Nixon when he resigned and with Martin Luther King Jr. as he marched for civil rights.

Martin Luther King Jr. in Canton, Mississippi in 1966. (Photo by Harry Benson)

Benson was only feet away when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, and somehow he kept taking photographs in the horrific chaos. (“If I hadn’t reacted like a photographer,” Benson said, “it would have haunted me for the rest of my life.”)

He also caught delightful photos of the Beatles having spontaneous fun in 1964 at the George V Hotel in Paris. They were relaxing in their room after a concert when their manager burst in to tell them “I Want to Hold Your Hand” had reached the top of the American charts. They reacted with a pillow fight, and Benson was there to capture their giddiness. “I took it at 3 a.m.,” he said, “and then I worked through the night washing my negatives in my hotel room bathtub.” Benson also covered the Beatles on their 1964 American debut tour, riding on their plane and shooting pictures as they came down the stairway to wave at the screaming fans across the tarmac.

Now in his nineties, Harry Benson is the subject of a new exhibition in downtown Washington, D.C. It is the brainchild of Ted Leonsis, the owner of the basketball and hockey teams that play in Washington’s Capital One Arena. Leonsis has collected Benson’s photographs for years, and over time the two have become friends. He says he insists that for each of the photographs he collects Benson give him the backstory.

This 1985 photo of Nancy and Ronald Reagan dancing—staged by Benson without the permission of White House aides—helped save Vanity Fair from closure. (Photo by Harry Benson)

Realizing that Washington, D.C. was “playing such a central role” in many of the Benson photos he collected, Leonsis decided to put the pictures on display for his adopted hometown. Since he is currently renovating the downtown block surrounding the Capital One Arena, he has taken advantage of the construction work to create a popup art gallery showcasing Benson photographs. The resulting exhibition, intended to last for several months during the renovation, was a labor of love for two couples—Leonsis and his wife, Lynn, and Benson and his wife, Gigi.

Ultimately, they selected nearly 170 Benson images that feature every president and first lady from the Eisenhowers to the Bidens, sports figures like Muhammad Ali, and entertainers including the Beatles, Dolly Parton, Jessye Norman, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Mick Jagger. The images have been given plenty of room to breathe, with the exhibition spread out over 10,000 feet on two floors. It’s a powerful visual history of marquee figures in American life and culture from the 1950s to today.

Visible in this room of the exhibition are Harry Benson photos of the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow, and Truman Capote. (Photo by Ralph Alswang)

At the same time, it’s a showcase for the gifted eye and hard work of an extraordinary photographer. Leonsis told me the exhibition is his “heartfelt tribute to Harry Benson.”

And he said he also hopes the show—which is free and open to the public—can help revitalize downtown Washington by bringing some of the city’s 30 million annual tourists to the downtown corridor. The exhibition itself is in a central location, with neighbors that include the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Shakespeare Theatre, and several top-rated restaurants. Leonsis hopes that the exhibition will give impetus to the rising cultural and economic importance of downtown Washington as an international capital—to be, as Harry Benson himself always insisted on being, “at the center of things, not the edges.”