Celebrity photographer Dave Benett has shot all the greats in his thirty years as the Evening Standard’s party pap
(Picture: Evening Standard)Dave Benett, paparazzi extraordinaire — and this publication’s showbiz and society photographer since the mid-Eighties — traces the birth of our obsession with celebrity to a precise moment: “Liz Taylor’s 50th birthday party at Legend’s [the now shuttered Old Burlington Street nightclub]. It was hosted for her by Richard Burton and was a most ridiculous, lavish affair.”
Working as a news and current affairs photographer at the time this, he explains, was his first brush with showbiz royalty. “It was 1982 and I’d never really seen that sort of pap chase. The flashing lights, everyone clambering over the car, chasing them back to where she was living.” A year or two later (and on a decidedly less glamorous note) “the papers started reporting storylines from Coronation Street on their front pages,” he explains. “I knew then that things were changing, that showbiz was becoming news.”
Some 30 years on, his pictures have helped define this era of celebrity. As well as photographing premiers and parties for the Standard, he’s also been a contributing photographer for Getty Images since 2004, attending “most every great party you can think of”. Nowadays he is on friendly terms with many of the megastars that he helped to mononym status: Kate and Naomi have been his muses since he started photographing them as relative unknowns doing small runway shows in their teens; it was his picture — snapped at the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere afterparty — that made Liz Hurley a household name. “I’d be everywhere — the Brits, the Baftas — I used to call it ‘half in, half out’. It was a strange balancing act, because you can’t be inside a party with Michael Caine and Roger Moore, and then go outside to try and get a picture with them. But by about 1995, I was more inside than outside.”
As you might expect, the amfAR Gala at Cannes and the Vanity Fair Oscars party are always a good time. “Louis Vuitton used to host some amazing parties for the Concours d’Elegance, which was at the Hurlingham Club. They’d have a proper fairground, you know, and horse rides. Just beautiful settings.” But, he sighs, hedonism is not what it used to be. “In the Eighties, Nineties and Noughties people were naughty; as long as the photographer wasn’t taking pictures, you were fine. There were lots of wild parties, lots of things going on — I obviously was not aware of any of them,” he says, coyly. “People could get away with more.”
For the new generation, Cara, Bella et al, he says it’s more about work ethic and manners than hours logged on the dancefloor. “I wouldn’t be surprised if parties start taking cameras and phones and locking them in cloakrooms,” he says. Social media has changed everything. “It’s nice that these images remain, a testament to how it was.”
Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, 1999
“One from the De Beers/ Versace fashion show at Syon House. Kate and Naomi have been my muses for more than 20 years. The first time I photographed them was at a fashion show when one would have been 17 and the other about 20 — they’ve been my constants ever since.”
Bella Hadid, 2016
“This was taken at a Love magazine party at Loulou’s. People were having a good time there; I saw that she was laughing and joking with her pals. She put her foot up so one of them could take a cheeky picture — so I came over and took one too.”
Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant, 1994
“This is the picture that I took at Four Weddings and a Funeral, going to the after party at the In and Out Club in Piccadilly. I just felt like everyone was there, taking pictures and I hadn’t gotten something that really worked. Then I realised that there were two little steps going into the club so I went there and just waited my turn. Poor old Hugh doesn’t even know the picture is happening — but Elizabeth totally does. And she just turns around and gives me the best picture; the movements in the dress is what works, I think. [This shot] really made the dress iconic — and Liz Hurley, one of the most famous women in the world.”
Prince, Prince Charles, Donatella Versace, 1999
“I think you get an amazing sense of the crazy world that Prince Charles inhabits in this picture. It was taken at a De Beers/ Versace fashion show at Syon House. You can tell that he’s just a little bit uncomfortable within this crowd.”
Jack Nicholson with Danny DeVito, 1993
“This was around the time they’d made The Batman. They’d come out of a drinks party at one of the studio headquarters. Jack Nicholson was always quite wary of us [photographers]. He always used to say that he’d be looking both ways, checking both sides of the road when he was coming out of restaurants because ‘you guys are always around.’”
Mick Jagger
“This is the first time I ever come face to face with Mick Jagger, the first in 30 years-worth of photography. I love that leather jacket — and, of course, he has his tongue out, very Jagger.”
Paris Hilton, 2002
“The dress has become very famous in its own right. Paris is probably the first of the reality stars. Initially, she was a celebrity because she was a Hilton and she loved to party. The club world loved her so much, she became the queen of nightclubs. This was her birthday — she was basically having her 21st birthday at different venues all around the world — and this was the party she hosted in London. And I mean, she really partied.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, 2014
“It’s interesting because there’d been a lot of competition between these two men, certainly in the Eighties and Nineties. Here they were in Cannes at a dinner and party for one of The Expendables films. And suddenly Schwarzenegger just grabs Stallone, starts waltzing with him. Quite a change for two real competitors.”
Gianni Versace and Elton John, 1992
“Gianni Versace really brought the glamour and the rock and roll back into fashion, and Elton was one of his biggest supporters. This was taken at the opening of the first standalone Versace shop in London. We were all lent Versace shirts for the opening — so even the photographers were wearing those shirts. They chased us for about six months trying to get them back. I did try to keep mine but they got me in the end.”
Princess Diana and Liza Minnelli, 1991
“I had eight seconds to take this picture. Diana had gone to see Stepping Out, which is a movie that Liza was in. Diana loved music and dance — whenever she was amongst dancers, she was always at her happiest. I had an opportunity to shoot one or two things, privately and quickly. And as I approach the table Liza must have said something to make Diana laugh her head off. So that was very much a case of ‘right place, right time.’ I think Diana will always be of interest to the public, on some level. She was an icon.”
Dave Benett: Great Shot, Kid runs from 17 February 2022 to 8 March 2022 at JD Malat Gallery, 30 Davies Street, W1K4NB
