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.

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. His work explores self-created mythos, weaving together imagery to navigate the space between fiction and reality—investigating themes of identity, mysticism, animism, and death.

His work has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Center for Fine Art Photography, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, 82Parris, Panopticon Gallery, RIT City Space Gallery, and more. He has been featured by numerous platforms including Lensculture, Float Magazine, Lenscratch, Transference Magazine, and Fraction Magazine. His publications are held in collections at the National Gallery of Art, School of Visual Arts, and Griffin Museum of Photography, and his monograph, Like Dust Settling in a Dim-Lit Room (Or Starless Forest), was shortlisted for the 2023 Lucie Photobook Prize.

Jake is currently the assistant gallery manager, associate curator of photography, and curator of books at Blue Raven Gallery, a content editor for Lenscratch, and the founder/director of wych elm, an independent press creating small-run photo books, zines, and fine art ephemera.