Acclaimed photographer looks back on his most famous pictures of world’s most famous man and reveals his one golden rule of capturing celebrities
Going to America, 1964
Having a shave as The Beatles prepare for their first American visit: “This was taken on a plane to New York. Paul wanted to look fresh for The Beatles arriving in the United States. It was their first trip and they weren’t sure how they were going to be received. Paul wanted to look clean and tidy, and it was important for me that he did. I didn’t want him looking as if he had just got off a bus at 4am.”
London, 1964
Sitting quietly on a train leaving Paddington Station during filming of A Hard Day’s Night: “This is Paul trying to remember his lines for the train scene in the film. It was chaotic with all the film cameras on the train, but I think Paul and John enjoyed making the movie. They were asked to do the same things over and over again for the cameras, but never lost their temper or displayed any attitude about it.”
Los Angeles, 1975
Playing piano for his three-year-old daughter, Stella. She looks lovingly up at her father as he plays: “Paul would sit down and tinkle a little tune, and ask Stella to do the same. It would be like, ‘Now we’re writing a song together’. Paul had a very close relationship with his children. He loved having his family around them. I felt fortunate to be there. It was a moment that you wouldn’t try to repeat again. My Fleet Street training was ‘if you don’t get it the first time, you don’t get anything’.”
New York, 1976
Giving wife Linda Mccartney a shoulder to lean on the way to Laguardia airport on May 26 1976 after two nights playing at Madison Square Garden on the Wings over the World tour: “It was a tough, tiring time for them. Every day it was another dressing room, another car, another airport, another security gate. I was tired too, but that’s when the likes of us need to find the extra energy to get the photographs that no one else has. This was my opportunity to get something fresh, something that people hadn’t seen before.”
Los Angeles, 1976
Linda Mccartney turns the tables on Harry Benson and photographs him with her husband Paul: “Linda was a good photographer. She also did something which I respected her for, which was if she took a picture over my shoulder, she didn’t send it off to someone and it appeared somewhere else. There’s always a concern that when you’re doing something exclusive someone takes a picture over your shoulder and it appears somewhere else. But Linda never did.”