VIP Subjects Fill Benson’s Photo Survey

An impressive panorama of movie stars, presidents, supermodels, rock ‘n’ rollers and such flash-in-the-pan celebrities as John Wayne Bobbitt greets visitors to a big, entertaining survey of Harry Benson’s photographs from the last 40 years.

At G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, a handful of pictures of U.S. soldiers in Bosnia, a smattering of Berlin club-hoppers and nudists and a few early images of children are also included, as if to demonstrate that the well-known magazine photographer takes pictures of ordinary folks, too.

Scheduled to coincide with the publication of “First Families: An Intimate Portrait From the Kennedys to the Clintons,” the exhibition features Benson’s behind-the-scene shots of American presidents, their wives, children and pets. More than a third of its 80 prints belong to this group, which includes many of Benson’s best works.

Although it would be a mistake to believe that these pictures magically capture the private truths behind the public facades, it’s interesting to see how some first family members pose for the camera. A color print of George Bush swimming in a pool shows the ex-president smiling widely so that his silver fillings flash in the sunlight like a carnival huckster’s. Even the dog that he clutches to his chest looks panicked.

A jubilant, untroubled Richard Nixon is wildly out of character with history’s image of him as a paranoid power-monger who went down in defeat. And a recent photograph of Jimmy Carter hosing down his tennis court depicts a man whose work ethic still overpowers his pleasure principle.

Some of Benson’s celebrity photos play up the difference between public persona and private person, but most lack the drama and seriousness provided by the posing that regularly takes place in the world of politics.

* G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, 908 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 394-5558, through June 3. Closed Sundays and Mondays.