From street life to high life – Benson’s best goes on show

● Exhibition to portray some of the finest works of the Glasgow photojounalist

From high celebrity and the political elite to two girls playing in a litter- filled back court, photographer Harry Benson effortlessly captured life in all its forms.

Now an exhibition of some of the finest works of the Glasgow photojournalist will go on show in his home city this weekend.

Benson’ s iconic takes on world history will sit along side rarely-seen shots of city street life at Pollok House from tomorrow.

The powerful collection captures events from the assassination of Senator Robert F Kennedy in aLos Angeles hotel to the Meredith March Against Fear, a major event in the history of the civil rights movement, which was attended by Martin Luther King.

A number of“off-duty” celebrity shots are also included, from a picture of Dolly Parton applying her lip gloss to a touching image of Sir Paul Mccartney playing the piano with his daughter, Stella, sitting on his knee.

From the rich and the powerful, to the poor and innocent, Benson captured them all with a number of photographs of Glasgow children among the most potent in the exhibition.

The show is being mounted in the new gallery space at Pollok House on Glasgow’s south side.

Fr it ha Costa in, business manager for Glasgow and West at the National Trust for Scotland, which owns the property, said :“Harry Benson’s work is seminal. He managed to pre-empt important events in world history and capture them in hi si ni mitable style through hisp ho- to graphs. Harry really got under the skin of his subjects, tapped into their spirit, and had an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time.

“This exhibition is a celebration of Benson coming home to Glasgow. There hasn’t been a display of Harry’ s work in his home town for years, and we’re excited to host this event at Pollok House in the months ahead.”

Benson, now 88, first travelled to the US with The Beatles in 1964. His pictures have since appeared in publications including Life, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker.