Flash! Photographer Dave Benett never misses the shot
Since the 1980s, he's been up close and personal with every A-list night to remember. As a London exhibition celebrates his work, he talks to Samuel Fishwick
9 February 2022 By Samuel Fishwick
Dave Benett has photographed more stars than most astronomers. With his sharp black suits and snow-white beard, the paparazzo-turned-society photographer has spent three decades at the hottest VIP soirees in London and beyond, snapping every single celebrity from Nelson Mandela and Michael Jackson to Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Now 64, Benett has a celebrity wattage of his own: the surest way to tell if you’re at an A-list bash is if ‘Dave’ is calling the shots – ‘Kate!’, ‘Cara, love!’, ‘Dua!’ – with his trusty Nikon.
‘Twenty years ago, I really partied with the party,’ he says, with a twinkle. ‘Now I’m a lot more restrained.’ Still a geezer at heart beneath his Mallorca suntan, he isn’t slowing down. But he has curated a retrospective of his work, Great Shot, Kid, an exhibition at the JD Malat Gallery in London from 17 February to 8 March. Born in Mauritius, Benett was sent to school in Liverpool when he was just 11, after his father Raymond, a surgeon, and his mother Katrina, a nurse, divorced. A London apprenticeship at a photography agency followed; by the mid-1980s he was the Evening Standard’s ‘night guy’, scooping invites to the inner sanctums of the most exclusive events in town. The rest is showbiz history.
Who’s your favourite muse?
‘Kate Moss. I’ve got a picture I took of her hung up in my apartment, looking like James Dean with her hands over her shoulder and a lit cigarette that looks like the end of a gun. You can walk in a room and not see Kate, she’s that normal, but if your camera sees her, ‘bang’, she shoots you right back, all smouldering eyes and cheekbones.’
Who’s always the life and soul of the party?
‘Maya Jama and Jourdan Dunn. I love girls from normal backgrounds who are making their careers from nothing, just as Kate and Naomi were 20 years ago. It’s also always a good night if I spot Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, Steve McQueen, Michael Ward or Lily James walking through the door, too. Today, everywhere you go you can find English guys taking over the world.’
Are there any A-listers you’re close to?
‘Brad Pitt and I have spent a lot of time together. Brad and Gwyneth Paltrow were the ‘It’ couple once upon a time, the two most beautiful people on the planet. Then it was Brad and Jennifer. Then Brad and Angelina. A few years ago, I was privileged to be allowed to stay with the Ocean’s 12 cast at Villa La Vigie, the white villa that overlooks Monaco. We met them on the tarmac as they got off their Gulfstream jet. Brad looked at me and went, ‘F**k me, Dave, you get everywhere.’ Then he asked me to shoot candid portraits of him and Matt [Damon] playing pool.’
Did any ‘It’ couples love the camera?
‘Hugh Grant was always a bit awkward, but Liz Hurley loved it, which is why my picture of them on the steps outside The In & Out club after the Four Weddings And A Funeral premiere works. It’s candid. She knows. I’ve just gone, ‘Elizabeth’, and she’s turned around and given me two barrels of shape. If you Google ‘Versace black dress’, that’s the picture that comes up.’
What’s the trickiest job you’ve ever worked?
‘Photographing the Queen Mother’s 99th birthday. The cast of The Importance Of Being Earnest were meeting the Queen Mother at the Theatre Royal, but she wasn’t alone, she was with the Queen and Princess Margaret. I had to get the Queen Mother in this small anteroom, and I realised the Queen was in the way. How do you ask the Queen to get out of your shot? I went ‘Ma’am?’, and she went, ‘Oh, I suppose you want me to move”.’
Which star was a challenge to track down?
‘Prince. At a club once, he came out of a side door and literally dived from the door to the waiting limo without touching the ground. He looked at me from behind the tinted window and laughed, knowing I hadn’t been quick enough to take his picture.’
What’s your favourite place to work?
‘Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc during the Cannes Film Festival. One minute I’m sitting with jeweller De Grisogono owner, Fawaz Gruosi and Naomi Campbell on the sofa, glass in hand, as the Black Eyed Peas were playing on stage, and the next they’re whisking off to a superyacht. I’ve also opened so many Soho House parties, from Miami Beach House to Istanbul, that I must be a good luck charm. They’ve been some of my favourites.’
Why’s the exhibition called Great Shot, Kid?
‘When the police were fighting Teddy Boys from Southend in the 1980s, I took a snap just as they pinpointed a troublemaker and pulled him out with his Doc Marten boots in mid-air. As young, 20-year-old Dave Benett takes that picture, I hear this guy behind me say, “Great shot, kid”, and it’s my hero Don McCullin, the war photographer, who’s been sent along by The Sunday Times.’
Who would you still like to photograph?
‘I’d have loved to have photographed Elvis and John Lennon. Elvis was so rare, and he never came to England, whereas Lennon went to America and never came home.’
Great Shot, Kid is on at JD Malat Gallery from Thursday 17 February to Tuesday 8 March 2022.
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