I first saw the work of Clare Benson at an SPE conference back in 2011, and I’ve been keeping up with her since. A recent series of hers that I love is The Shepherd’s Daughter, which explores the ritual of hunting through her connection with her former hunting guide father. After the death of her mother when Benson was twelve years old, her father’s taxidermy trophy collection began to grow exponentially. Benson’s photographs depict a curiosity about mortality in a unique way. In her statement, she writes, “Growing up amidst the hunting culture of northern Michigan, I learned to see the ritual of hunting as a way for humans to connect with and conquer untamed nature; it is a ritual that speaks to notions of mortality and the interconnectedness of life within a larger system.”
Clare Benson has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for the 2014/2015 academic year and will be traveling to northern Sweden where she will live and work amongst astronomers, hunters and reindeer herders. I look forward to seeing what she produces next.
From “The Shepherd’s Daughter”
Visit artist's site: clarebenson.com
Posted September 29th, 2014
