Richard Benson (photographer) explained

Richard Mead Atwater Benson
Other Names:Chip (nickname)
Birth Name:Richard Mead Atwater Benson
Birth Date:8 November 1943
Birth Place:Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.
Death Place:Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Nationality:American
Education:Brown University
Occupation:Photographer

Richard Mead Atwater Benson (November 8, 1943 – June 22, 2017)[1] was an American photographer, printer, and educator who used photographic processing techniques of the past and present.[2] [3]

"He is perhaps best known for his innovations in photographic offset printing techniques and, later, ink-jet printing."

Benson was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and a MacArthur Fellowship. His work is held in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art.

Biography

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Benson attended the St. George's School, then spent three months at Brown University before dropping out and joining the United States Navy.[3] [4] [5] He learned about lenses and optics in his time in the navy. He then worked as a printer, primarily in printing photographs, first in Connecticut and then in Newport.

Benson began teaching photography at Yale University in 1979 and was dean of the Yale School of Art from 1996 to 2006.[6] [7] Benson had a broad range of interests in the photographic print: aluminum, silver, platinum, palladium, and ink. Working in these different mediums, sometimes learning forgotten crafts and sometimes creating new ones, by the 1970s he was convinced that ink and the modern photo offset press—with its ability to make multiple passes that build an image from multiple layers of ink—possessed a potential for photographic rendition beyond anything else previously known. By the 1990s he began working on the relationship between the computer and traditional photographic imagery, and applied the lessons from this in the production of long-run offset books of work by different photographers, in both black and white and color.

He was the uncle of stone carver Nicholas Benson, the owner of The John Stevens Shop. Nick Benson was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010, making the Bensons one of two families with multiple MacArthur fellows.[8]

Publications

Awards

Honors and awards given to him

Honors and awards in honor of him

Collections

Benson's work is held in the following permanent collections:

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Richard Benson, Photographer and Printer, Dies at 73. Sandomir. Richard. The New York Times. June 27, 2017. June 28, 2017.
  2. News: Liz. Jobey. March 6, 2019. In focus: Liz Jobey looks at the work of photographic printer Richard Benson. The Guardian. January 8, 2009. 0261-3077. www.theguardian.com.
  3. Web site: March 6, 2019. R.I.P., Richard Benson: Photographer, Printer, and Educator. petapixel.com. June 30, 2017 .
  4. Web site: June 27, 2017. Richard M. A. Benson. 2021-05-12. The Newport Daily News. en.
  5. Web site: Papageorge. Tod. 2017. Benson In Memoriam. 2021-05-12. Yale School of Art. en.
  6. March 6, 2019. In Memoriam: Remembering the Photographers We Lost in 2017. Time.
  7. Web site: March 6, 2019. Yale University School of Art: Richard Benson. Yale University.
  8. News: Jones . Malcolm . Stone Carver Nick Benson Gives Eternity a Run for Its Money . March 27, 2019 . The Daily Beast . June 29, 2018.
  9. Web site: June 23, 2017. Richard Benson (1943–2017). 2021-05-12. Art Forum. en-US.
  10. Web site: Kuzma. Marta. June 26, 2017. Benson In Memory Kuzma. 2021-05-12. Yale School of Art. en.
  11. Web site: January 1, 2019. Richard M. A. Benson. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  12. Book: Conniff. Gregory. Wild Edges: Photographic Ink Prints. Panczenko. Russell. Chazen Museum of Art (University of Wisconsin Madison). 2006. 978-0-932900-99-9. 159. en.
  13. Web site: January 1, 2019. Richard Benson – MacArthur Foundation. MacArthur Foundation.
  14. Web site: April 20, 2020. Dannielle Bowman Wins 2020 Aperture Portfolio Prize. 2021-05-12. Art Forum. en-US.
  15. Web site: 2021-04-14. ICP Extends "But Still, It Turns: Recent Photography from the World" Through August 15. 2021-05-12. International Center of Photography. en.
  16. Web site: Annual Awards Bulletin of Yale University. 2021-05-12. Yale Bulletin.
  17. Web site: March 6, 2019. Richard Benson. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
  18. Web site: March 6, 2019. Search / Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  19. Web site: March 6, 2019. Richard Benson. The Museum of Modern Art.
  20. Web site: March 6, 2019. Richard Benson · SFMOMA. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
  21. Web site: March 6, 2019. Richard Benson. Whitney Museum of American Art.