New York Celebrates Harry Benson

Written by:

PALMER Editor

Photo Credit: Harry Benson

05/19/2026

At New York’s storied National Arts Club on April 27, legendary photographer Harry Benson celebrated the opening of Art & Life, an exhibition spanning more than seven decades of image-making, alongside his wife, Gigi Benson. The evening brought together several hundred friends and longtime admirers, many of whom were surprised to discover previously unseen photographs from Benson’s archive exhibited next to some of his most iconic images.

As PALMER previously explored in its feature on Benson’s extraordinary life and career, the Scottish-born photographer famously arrived in America with The Beatles in 1964 and went on to document presidents, royalty, artists, activists, and celebrities with an incredible eye for intimacy and timing. Over the decades, Benson has photographed everyone from John F. Kennedy and Muhammad Ali to Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson, building a body of work that has become inseparable from the visual history of the past century.

Hosted by Hillary Welson, the evening also welcomed Benson’s daughter Tessa, who flew in from Los Angeles for the occasion. Concetta Bencivenga and curator Robert Yahner offered a champagne toast honoring Benson’s remarkable career, while Harry’s characteristically modest and humorous remarks kept the mood celebratory throughout the night.

Among those gathered were fellow photographers Neil Leifer, Lynn Goldsmith, Bob Gruen, and Christophe von Hohenberg, alongside editors, writers, musicians and cultural figures including Samantha Ronson, Grace Hightower, Mayer Rus, Walter Bernard. Palm Beach also showed up in force to celebrate their fellow resident, with guests including Beth Rudin DeWoody, Amy Fine Collins, Sylvester Miniter and Gillian Miniter, among many others.