Harry Benson photo exhibit: Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney, Marlon Brando, Richard Nixon, Bon Jovi and so much more

Like just about everyone these days, Harry Benson owns a smartphone camera. Unlike just about everyone, he never uses it to take photographs.

“I don’t want to think about it,’’ he says in his distinct Scottish accent. “ It would be so awkward for me. Even if I learned to do it in 20 minutes, I wouldn’t do it.’’

Benson, who carries a flip phone and keeps his smartphone in a drawer at home, is not a technology snob. He’s an iconic photographer who cut his chops when telephones were still mounted on walls and cameras existed only as their own individual pieces of delicate and sometimes bulky equipment.

For 60 years, he has carried cameras — real cameras — into conflict zones, concert halls, movie sets, the White House, Buckingham Palace and beyond, capturing an unrivaled body of work that has graced gallery walls and the pages of Life, Time, Vanity Fair and People magazines, among many others.

Some of his best photographs are on display through June in a new exhibit, "Harry Benson Picturing History," in the Norton House at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach.

Exhibit celebrates 60 years of history captured in iconic photos

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Forty-two memorable images, celebrating Benson’s latest honor as the sculpture garden’s 2023 artist in residence, cover the first-floor walls of the recently restored 1925 house.

There’s Winston Churchill being serenaded by admirers, Willie Nelson relaxing in a bubbly bathtub, Richard Nixon announcing his resignation, Marlon Brando on the set of "The Godfather," Gerald Ford at the kitchen sink washing dishes, Dolly Parton putting on makeup, the Beatles hitting each other with pillows, Ethel Kennedy screaming and trying to block the camera with her hand moments after an assassin gunned down her husband, Robert F. Kennedy.

Benson, 93, was there for all of that and more, over a rich career that spanned not only 13 U.S. presidents (he’s photographed every one from Eisenhower to Biden) but also astonishing leaps in camera technology.

“No one has pictured history more incredibly than Harry Benson,’’ said Frances Fisher, chairwoman of the Ann Norton board of directors.

Also on display are magazine covers with Benson’s work and thank-you letters from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and first ladies Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton.

The exhibit is a collaboration with the Holden Luntz Gallery in Palm Beach, which curated the exhibit from its Benson collection, and Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, the annual art fair at the Palm Beach County Convention Center set for March 23-26.

“My hope is that the photographs will remind you of special moments in history or even introduce you to an era before you were born,” Benson said.

Benson teaching the smart-phone generation through photos

“Photographers record society,’’ he said, “the good, the bad and the really ugly.’’

The exhibit also serves as a reminder of the challenges photojournalists such as Benson endured to capture such memorable images, something easily forgotten at a time when cell phones seem to make a photographer out of just about anyone.

Benson hopes to convey that message to youngsters through the Ann Norton's educational programming.

Never mind that the students know few, if any, of the people in Benson’s photographs — or that the only cameras those students have known are the ones on smartphones. That’s the point of the Artist in Residency program.

“Maybe people will see familiar faces. Maybe they learn something or are introduced to people or something they don't know. That's why it's so great,’’ said Margaret Horgan, the sculpture gardens’ managing director.

Benson and his wife, Gigi, live in Wellington and New York City. They spend most of their time these days working on his archives, two exhibitions and various books.

He also promotes his work at book signings. Last week, he was at the Norton House to sign four books — "Paul," "The Beatles: on the Road, 1964-1966," "Persons of Interest" and "Palm Beach People."

Benson occasionally takes photographs these days, usually with a Canon digital such as the one he used in May 2022 for a portrait of the musician Jon Bon Jovi — a far cry from the clunky wide-angle Rolleiflex he used to capture The Beatles on their arrival to America in 1964. (Yes, the Bon Jovi and Beatles photos are displayed at the Norton House.)

He said he’ll be thrilled if the exhibit inspires future photojournalists, even those raised in an era when cameras double as telephones and fit in their pockets.

“A good photograph can’t be repeated. It's a one-shot deal, to get a really, really good one,’’ Benson noted.

Expelled from school, camera kept him out of trouble

He started taking photographs as a teenager after he was expelled from secondary school during World War II. To keep young Harry out of trouble, his father gave him a camera.

A few years later, Benson had a photo of American soldiers stationed in Scotland published by the Glasgow Evening Times. Benson still remembers the thrill of seeing that first photograph in print.

“I was on the train and a guy opened the newspaper and there was my picture of Americans marching down the street,’’ he said. “I felt like shouting out, ‘That’s my picture in the paper!’ It's a wonderful feeling to see a picture actually published. It was inspiring to me.’’

But, as Benson noted, “There was still a long road to go.’’

He went to work in one of the most competitive journalism markets on the planet — London’s Fleet Street — as an enthusiastic photojournalist for the London Daily Express.

“I liked competing with the best of the best,’’ he said. “Speed isn't everything. It was the only thing. You had to be fast. A good photograph can happen at any time.’’

Among the other lessons he learned: Show up early and never dismiss assignments you may not consider exciting.

“You don't know when you're going to get a good picture, a good story. I did any [assignment] they would give me,’’ he said. “What could sound like a mediocre story that you just want to pass the day can turn into something big and worthwhile.’’

Rerouted from war to British invasion

That’s what happened in January 1964. Benson was about to board a plane for an assignment in Uganda when his editor at The Daily Express called to tell him there had been a change of plans.

Benson was going to France, instead, to photograph an up-and-coming band called The Beatles, who were playing 18 shows before embarking on their first U.S. tour.

He was not happy.

But the assignment changed his life. He wound up capturing memorable images of the Beatles and flying to America with the band for their historic arrival in New York City.

The Beatles provided a spark that sent Benson’s career on a trajectory that led him in 2014 to Buckingham Palace where Queen Elizabeth bestowed the order of commander of the British Empire upon him.

Sitting inside the Norton House on a sunny February day, in front of a favorite photograph he took of the queen with her famous red box, Benson was humble, and at times self-deprecating, about his successful career.

“What can I say? It was fun,’’ he said. “I was allowed to make a living, a career out of taking photographs. I don't know how I got away with that.’’

He insists he wasn’t the brightest youngster and may have wound up working on a road-building crew if he’d never picked up a camera.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I had to actually work for a living. They actually paid me to go to the other side of the world to take photographs,’’ he said.

“There are a lot of people, me included, that thank God there was photography. And I thank God I had a reasonably good eye.’’

If you go

What: "Harry Benson Picturing History"

Where: The Norton House and Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens; 253 Barcelona Road, West Palm Beach

Hours: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; runs through June 30

Admission: Free for members; $15 adults ; $ 7 children and students

Info: ansg.org

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Harry Benson pics: Nixon resignation, Willie Nelson, Beatles pillow fight