Paul McCartney has been photographed countless times throughout his life. Few are likely to have come as close to him as the Scot Harry Benson – apart from McCartney’s first wife Linda. Benson accompanied the Beatle for around 30 years, documenting his successes with the Fab Four, the band Wings, but also private moments with his wife and children. Paul McCartney is now celebrating his 80th birthday. On this occasion, Taschen Verlag is publishing a cheap edition of Benson’s illustrated book “Paul”. So far there was only a limited Collector’s Edition.
Benson describes his first encounter with McCartney and the Beatles in the 1960s: “I was then working as a press photographer for London dailies all over the world. The day before I was to leave for Africa on an assignment for the ‘Daily Express’, the doorbell rang picked up the phone late at night and the photo editor told me I was going to Paris to photograph the Beatles. I wasn’t happy about that as I considered myself a serious photojournalist but thank God I took the job. He changed my life.”
“A picture of the Beatles without Paul wasn’t a picture of the Beatles”
From then on, Benson accompanied the band on numerous gigs and trips. He documented their greatest successes such as 1964 during their tour of the USA and the premiere of their film “A Hard Day’s Night”. It was Paul McCartney in particular who fascinated Harry Benson as a photographer. “As I soon found out, it was possible to photograph the Beatles, but only if Paul was in the picture. A picture of the Beatles without Paul wasn’t a picture of the Beatles. He was the magnet, he was the one you were looking at , the one who conveyed the mood of the situation,” enthuses the 92-year-old.
That’s why Benson McCartney stayed connected even after the Beatles broke up. The men had developed not only a working relationship, but an intimate friendship that enabled Benson to take private, intimate pictures of Paul McCartney.