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Artist accepts commissions.
STATEMENT
In Far Eastern traditions, one takes a humble journey to discover the world and eventually oneself. My practice runs parallel to this path. When exhibiting my work, I seek to create an immersive and sensory experience, transporting my own experiences and thoughts to the viewer. For me, photography is visual poetry; its ability to transcend time and place captures my attention. Capturing or representing reality are not my goals when photographing. Instead, the coexistence between the past and present, dream and reality, and absence and presence are what consumes me. During the passing of time and its surreal qualities and tensions between real and imagined, random moments are what I seek to convey in my work, taking the viewer elsewhere.
I do this by investigating concepts of space, place, time, and memory. This exploration allows me to explore how the environment in which I live and its history guides my views and perceptions. Thus, by studying historical aspects of a region and employing philosophical elements of the sublime and beauty in nature, I seek to inform and address my relationship’s ontological aspects to the world by examining my internal dialogue.
My examination of the sublime and beauty in nature sparked my influence by Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant’s writings and the paintings of many Romantic period painters, including J.M.W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich. Burke and Kant’s writings also influenced them. Through enigmas of nature, I try to understand my limits of the human condition by approaching the landscape around me, searching for some kind of answer. Nature’s obscurity and limitations also become my limits. My work will help viewers look at and experience the world and landscapes in a new way.
BIO
Christopher Bennett is a photographer living in Dearborn, Michigan. He has recently exhibited his work in Detroit at Galerie Camille, The Scarab Club and Subjectively Objective Gallery as well as nationally and internationally at The Phoenix Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ft. Wayne Museum of Art (IN), Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Fe, NM), INOVA (Milwaukee, WI), Klompching Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Circuit Gallery (Toronto) and Kominek Gallery (Berlin).
EXHIBITIONS/SHOWS/COMMISSIONS
2021
Hatchback 15, Hatch Gallery, Hamtramck, MI, Juried by Senghor Reid
40th Annual Michigan Fine Arts Exhibition, BBAC, Birmingham, MI.
2020
2020 Exhibition of Contemporary Photography, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI, Juried by Tom Stoye
Art Now 2020: Photography, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI, Juried by Eleanor Oakes
Selva Oscura / Dark Wood, Image Works Gallery, Dearborn, MI
Hatchback 14, Hatch Gallery, Hamtramck, MI, Juried by Michael Hodges
2019
Black & White, Galerie Camille, Detroit, MI,
Winter, Analog Forever Online Exhibition, Juried by Aline Smithson
Wild, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI, Juried by Scott Hocking
Captured in the D's, Black Box Gallery, Dearborn, MI
2018
Landscapes 2018, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Photography 2018, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI, Juried by Mille Tibbs
The Vernacular of Landscape, Subjectively Objective Gallery, Detroit, MI
2016
UnBound5!, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA
Salon: Portland2016 Biennial, The Studio Visits, Disjecta, Portland OR
Dark Wood, Camerawork Gallery, Portland, OR
Photographs from the Collection, Honickman Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art
2015
Apprehensions, Circuit Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
Fresh 2015, Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Curve, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
Pacific Midwest, INOVA Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, WI
The National: Contemporary Photography, Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, Ft. Wayne, IN
Controlled Burn, CCNY Gallery, New York, NY
Blue Sky's Pacific Northwest Photography Viewing Drawers, Portland, OR
Umpqua Valley Arts Association Artworks Northwest Exhibit, juried selection, Roseburg, OR
2014
Place: Framing Oregon's Landscape, Oregon Historical Society, Portland, OR
INFOCUS Photo Books Exhibition, Phoenix Art Museum
Picture Books, Power Plant Gallery, Duke University
Along the Way, Pushdot, Portland, OR
Controlled Burn, Joseloff Gallery University of Hartford, Hartford, CT
2013
Unfolding Images, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA selected by Seth Curcio
Halfway Pretty, Kominek Gallery, Berlin Germany
Louisiana Purchase: 2nd National Biennial, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA Curated by Dr. Paul Manoguerra
Along the Way, Lightbox Gallery, Astoria, OR
Photography and Environmental Concern, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, Curated by Katherine Ware
LightLeak, Camerawork Gallery, Portland, OR
EDUCATION
2014
MFA in Photography, University of Hartford
1999
BFA, Indiana University
AWARDS/DISTINCTIONS
AWARDS
Red Bull Arts Micro Grant
The Print Center & Philadelphia Museum of Art Purchase Award
2015 Curator's Choice Awards, 3rd Place, Center Santa Fe
2014 Regional Arts & Culture Council, Professional Development Grant
2012 Review Santa Fe, Center Santa Fe
Finalist 2011 Clarence John Laughlin Award, New Orleans Photo Alliance
2012 Regional Arts & Culture Council, Professional Development Grant
2011 Regional Arts & Culture Council, Project Grant
Evelyn Glazer Scholarship for outstanding merit in Photography
National Society of Arts and Letters-Elanor Kahn Memorial Award
Indiana University Honors Division Teaching Internship Grant
Indiana University Honors Division Non-Teaching Internship Grant
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Portland Art Museum
Various private collections
PUBLICATIONS
Fraction Magazine, 12th Anniversary Issue
Aint-Bad Magazine, Issue No. 14
Aint-Bad Magazine, From Here On, Vol. 3 Issue 1
Mossless Issue Three: The United States (2003-2013)
Western Landscape Photography, Then and Now Oregon Historical Quarterly
The Matter of Light Diffusion Magazine
Photographing the House of Sound Wired.com
Between West and West Lights Leaks Magazine
Travel Photography Hemispheres Magazine
LECTURES
Brown Bag Lecture Series, Portland Art Museum
Panel Discussion, Oregon Historical Society
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
mage Works
Present
Owner / Operator
Image Works offers fine art (Giclee) printing, prepress proofing, retouching, artwork reproduction, and film scanning.
Pushdot Studio
2014-2017
Production Supervisor
Head of production for digital printing, prepress proofing, retouching, exhibition mounting services and film scanning.
Newspace Center for Photography
2012-2014
Gallery Director
Head of Exhibition Program, Artist-in-Residence Program and oversaw artist facilities.
Newspace Center for Photography
2002-2012
Founder & Director
Developed public and educational programming, managed staff and volunteers, exhibitions, artist facilities, daily financials and reporting, and media/community relations.
Photo-eye Books & Gallery
Receiving Department
1999-2001
Responsible for receiving book orders, filling back orders and entering inventory in database.
George Eastman House
International Museum of Photography and Film
Summer 1998
Intern
Worked specifically in the Photographic Services Department shooting and printing copy negatives and prints from the museum’s archives.
ARTIST'S TAGS
photography, black and white, landscape, color, abstract, alternative process, west, midwest