Harry Benson

"Growing up in the war, listening to Churchill's speeches, being bombed in Glasgow every night - that brought me to photojournalism. It was the drama - I wanted to be close to the center of things.

"I was next to Bobby (Kennedy) when he was shot. It was hideous. Part of me wanted to crawl away. I couldn't. That was when I had to deliver. I was saying to myself, "Don't fail now, fail tomorrow". The Kennedy thing - I still wake up in the night and think about it. I even remember the f-stop. It was 1.4.

"I like to be mobile as hell. You only get good pictures when you're mobile. You don't get them if you've got a bunch of assistants."

A giant among photojournalists, Harry has been at the center of world events ever since he photographed the Beatles' first American tour. He's photographed every American president since Eisenhower and every member of the Kennedy family from JFK to Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. Along the way, he's won numerous awards and been on the cover of virtually every major magazine around the world. His books include, Once There Was a Way, a look back at his time with the Beatles, Over Fifty Years in Pictures and his latest, Harry Benson's America will be published in March 2005.

www.harrybenson.com