Meet the Artist: Richard Benson

Richard Benson (Nov. 8, 1943 – June 22, 2017) was an American photographer, printer, and educator. A master printer of photographs before becoming a photographer, Benson helped produce some of the most significant photography books of the past 50 years, including Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company. It was considered to be one of the most important private photography collections ever assembled and included rare 19th-century prints in diverse processes, as well as works by noted 20th-century photographers such as Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Alfred Stieglitz, among others. 

As his reputation as an innovator in printing processes grew, so too did his influence. Benson was also a beloved professor and dean at Yale University and inspired over three decades of students and artisans through his mentorship and work. He received two Guggenheim Fellowships (1979, 1986) and the MacArthur (1986), as well as support from the National Endowment for the Arts (1973, 1982) and the Eakins Press Foundation. 

Sarasota Art Museum presents Richard Benson: The World Is Smarter Than You Are, on view Feb. 5 through May 7. Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the exhibition is the first in-depth survey of Benson’s own photography. It includes approximately 100 works that convey Benson’s pathfinding exploration of photographic processes, his embrace of technologies old and new, and his deep empathy for his human subjects as well as the objects and environments they have built. Including prints from the late 1960s until shortly before Benson’s death in 2017, the exhibition traces his quest for the perfect print. 

The exhibition is organized by Peter Barberie, the Brodsky Curator of Photographs, and Alfred Stieglitz Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, who also edited the book that accompanies the exhibition. 

Richard Benson: The World Is Smarter Than You Are celebrates an important promised gift of Benson’s art, assembled by the artist and offered to the Philadelphia Museum of Art by his close friends, collectors Elizabeth Ann and William H. Kahane.

“Richard Benson: The World Is Smarter Than You Are” is on view at Sarasota Art Museum February 5, 2023 – May 7, 2023. This exhibition is paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues.