Navigating encounters with life and death, decay and transformation, perception and doubt, and rooted in themes of mysticism, ritual, memory, and the passage of time, Cave Canem weaves together the work of Kyle Gyumin Dong and Jake Benzinger.

Both artists share an inquiry and fascination with notions of belief and experiences that resist containment by language and objectivity. Their practices consider the camera as both a witness and unreliable narrator, an instrument for observing, preserving, and conjuring what might otherwise go unseen or unappreciated.

Dong’s attention to the fragility of vision and the desire to hold onto the fleeting meets Benzinger’s interest in myth, phenomena, and the porous threshold between fiction and reality. Together, their images become acts of reverence: gestures of curiosity, empathy, preservation, hope, care, and belief.

Rather than offering certainty, this body of work lingers in the unstable space between documentation, evidence, and apparition. It invites viewers to consider photography not as proof, but as a ritual of remembering, a medium that holds space for chance, subconscious desire, and a means of describing what haunts us, while discovering that it may also be what helps us find beauty and meaning.

beware of the dog

Jake Benzinger is a photographer, book artist, writer, and educator based between Providence, RI, and Rockland, ME. He received his BFA in photography from Lesley University, College of Art and Design, and is currently an MFA candidate at Rhode Island School of Design. His work explores notions of belief, weaving together imagery to navigate the space between fiction and reality, investigating themes of empathy, myth, phenomena, and death.

Jake’s work has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions and featured by numerous platforms. His monograph, Like Dust Settling in a Dim-Lit Room (Or Starless Forest), was shortlisted for the 2023 Lucie Photobook Prize and has since sold out of its second edition.

Jake is a photography and book arts workshop instructor, content editor for Lenscratch, and the founder/director of wych elm.

Kyle Gyumin Dong is a photographer and bookmaker whose work examines the role of sight in shaping how we perceive the world. His practice draws on medical imaging, myth, and everyday observation to explore the fragility of vision and the human desire to preserve what is fleeting.

His work has been exhibited at PhMuseum Days, Filter Photo, SAIC Galleries, JKC Gallery, and CICA Museum. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.