Harry Benson's America

Benson's America is a landscape created out of portraits-photographs that capture the intimate moments of celebrity giants, from Michael Jackson to Bob Hope, as well as the lives of anonymous men and women on streets, in night clubs and on battlefields. The elegant, full-page photos are not organized by chronology or subject matter; rather, they're presented as a patchwork collage of American culture. For example, a striking 1977 photograph of Donny and Marie Osmond sitting silently at a kitchen table, focused only on their sandwiches, sits opposite a photograph of two shirtless, tattooed marines grinning for the camera in 2001. The photographs span 40 years; Benson, who was raised in Scotland, fell in love with the U.S. on his first visit in 1964 while traveling with the Beatles. In his career working for Life, People and the New Yorker, he has photographed the most well-known politicians, actors and musicians, capturing them both in pensive moments and in the middle of large, adoring crowds. Some of the photos, like a snapshot of a sad Frank Sinatra standing alone in a doorway, are haunting in their intimacy, while others are fun and slightly odd, like the one of Cyndi Lauper in red fishnet stockings and flaming hair posing with her conservatively dressed grandparents in 1984. The nearly 200 photographs in this coffee-table book are diverse, weird and intriguing, providing insight into the unique personalities that define Benson's America. Nuotraukų albumas.