W.M. Hunt

 #somereallygoodones, #richardbenson, #artillerybunker, #printing; #nothing

Sometimes Richard A. Benson’s brilliance as a printer, even the breadth of his understanding of the ways of printing: platinum, offset, color pigment, etc. may distract his audience from his skill as an image maker.

His “Artillery Bunker, Jamestown, Rhode Island”, 1986 does something I don't think I’ve ever observed in another photograph.  The center of the piece disappears; the leaves of the bush get smaller and smaller until they are no more, rather pixellating into nothingness.  There is a shimmer of cloud and then pfft.  The image actually captures nothing and gives it substance.  The focus is so acute that it seemingly explores the leaves down to their chlorophyll.   

I like also like that the image is about rebirth, the devastation from the explosion of an artillery shell centuries ago is now a site of new growth with small trees coming up through cement.

The presence of Eve is even announced.

You can't really breeze by this because the detail is so engaging.

The print I have seen and that is reproduced here is an offset lithograph, a method of mass-production printing.  You could expect that the focus might be compromised in going from negative to metal plate, but that does not seem to be the case at all.  The print seems as viable as it would be as gelatin silver.  This is virtuoso work.  Benson wants your eyes to do some work and journey with him.  His books with offset lithographic reproductions do full justice to originals on a wall.

Benson’s later color work can be extraordinary in its ability to play so many different notes.  The brilliance is not only the vividness but the range of colors within the spectrum, infinite variations on an initial color with red becoming pink and rose and magenta and on and on, twinkling kaleidoscope-like.

He celebrates the secrets of photography.

©2022

#somereallygoodones, #theunseeneye, #wmhunt, #collectiondancingbear, #collectionblindpirate, #greatphotographs, #howilookatphotographs, #photographsfromtheunconsicous, #collectingislikerunningaroundinathunderstormhopingyoullbehitbylightning, #aphotographsogooditmakesyoufartlightning, #photographychangeditlifeitgavemeone, #richardbenson, #artillerybunker, #printing; #nothing