Mick Hartley

Contrasting American scenes captured by photographer Harry Benson, from a gallery of his work, ‘Photography Is Not a Team Sport’:

[Photo © Harry Benson]

James Brown does a split in Augusta, Georgia, 1979. “When I arrived, James Brown had his hair in curlers. He told me to jump in his car and he would show me his town. He stopped the car from time to time, jumped out, ran into someone’s yard, and did the split, singing ‘I Feel Fine.’ The people in the yard were astounded and started laughing.”

[Photo © Harry Benson]

The KKK Imperial Wizard Bobby Shelton shows his pistols in Beaufort, South Carolina, 1966. “I met the [Imperial] Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in his motel room in Beaufort and asked him if I could attend a rally that evening with him. He said yes but told me to leave when he did because the rally would get a bit feisty when he left.”