Like Dust Settling in a Dim-Lit Room
(Or Starless Forest)
Jake Benzinger
Hard Cover Monograph Book
Fall 2023
2nd Edition of 50
Perfect bound
56 pages
7 3/4 x 6”
(Or Starless Forest)
Jake Benzinger
Hard Cover Monograph Book
Fall 2023
2nd Edition of 50
Perfect bound
56 pages
7 3/4 x 6”
------------------------ Press/Awards -----------------------
Lucie Foundation 2023 Photo Book Prize (Shortlisted)
Fraction Magazine Issue 171
Griffin Museum of Photography Exhibition
Float Magazine (Book Review)
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------------------------ Artist Statement -----------------------
Like Dust Settling in a Dim-Lit Room (Or Starless Forest) constructs a liminal world that explores the intersection of reality, dream, and memory. Through photography, this body of work functions as a mirror, a reflection of my inner psyche and an investigation of identity, relationships, the domestic, and the natural world.
This process, with its focus on the self, is rooted in an attempt to heal. The exploration of ordinary locations, places devoid of people and often characterized by the presence of flora, have functioned as a refuge in my personal life. By frequenting these places, I began to see them as sets, utilizing them to construct my visions. I imbue them with fragments of the people, places, and memories that inhabit my subconscious.
I fail to find stability in the societal constructs of home and family; so I seek to create it in the natural world. Through the dislocation of these places and the infusion of nature into the domestic, this work constructs a fleeting world that lives in ambiguity. This space is familiar yet still foreign; it is a constructed world that visualizes my deepest desires and greatest fears.
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Jake Benzinger (he/him) is a photographer, book artist, and writer based in Rockland, Maine; he received his BFA in photography from Lesley University, College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA. Through the dislocation of space, he weaves together imagery to construct a world that exists in the liminal, investigating themes of mysticism, identity, ritual, and animism.