Hidden Waters / Arid Land Springs at Florida Museum of Photographic Arts Exhibition 2021
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As a child, Benedict spent so much time captivated by a photograph of her grandmother standing by a giant Saguaro that on her first visit to the Sonoran Desert, she felt it was home. Desert landscapes can be sparse yet beautiful, appearing barren until the smallest drop of rain brings it to life. Benedict is passionate about protecting that beauty and vitality from the ongoing human-made threats to their survival.
Benedict began her art career as a publications designer at The Museum of Northern Arizona on the Colorado Plateau and for National Park History Associations, roles which acted as early catalysts for her curiosity about natural and cultural history. A year-long photography trip around the world and subsequent work as a travel photographer further piqued her interest in the parts of the world at the edge of our attention that, while unobserved and unseen, profoundly shape our understanding of our surroundings. Benedict’s projects center on the role that landscape plays in the human experience.
Her earlier project subject matters range from memory landscapes to electrical towers in the American Western, to a child’s play in natural history dioramas. Her recent work Hidden Waters combines art and scientific research, exploring impacts of climate change and overuse on endangered dryland springs in the West.
Gridlines in the Overgrowth Exhibition at Decordova Museum of Art & Sculpture 2014
Earth Now American Photographers and the Environment - book cover photograph Cedar Wash from Gridlines Click here to purchase: Earth Now, American Photographers and the Environment by Katherine Ware
Benedict’s images are at Nevada Museum of Art Center for Art and Environment, Reno; Los Angeles County Art Museum, Center for Photography, Tucson; Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa; New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe; Decordova Museum of Art and Sculpture, Lincoln, MA; Harvard Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and George Eastman Museum. Solo exhibitions include Sahara West Gallery,, Las Vegas, NV, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Griffin Museum of Photography at Stoneham, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX; and Philadelphia Print Center. Up coming: Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, The Hidden Waters archive resides in the Museum of Art & Environment, Reno Nevada.
Benedict’s work resides in the Nevada Art Museum, Center for Art and Environment, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA); Center for Creative Photography (Tucson, AZ); Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, MA); George Eastman House (Rochester, NY); Decordova Museum of Art & Sculpture, (Lincoln, MA); New Mexico Museum of Art, (Santa Fe NM); Philadelphia Museum of Art; and various corporate and private collections. Selected solo exhibits include Sahara West Gallery, (Las Vegas, NV); Florida Museum of Photographic Art (Tampa, FL); and Texas Women’s University (Denton, TX); Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA; Museum of Northern Arizona (Flagstaff, AZ). Group exhibit highlights include PST ART: Art and Science Collide - Out of Site; Survey Science and the Hidden West, Autry Museum (Los Angeles, CA); Ceding Ground, Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA); Photoeye Gallery (Santa Fe, NM); and Women in Nature, Louis Bernal Gallery, PCC (Tucson, AZ). Benedict recently received the Project Launch Award, Center (Sante Fe, NM); Critical Mass Top 200; Joshua Tree Highlands Residency (Joshua Tree, CA); and Shoshone Artist Residency (Shoshone, CA), and nomination to Prix Pictet, while also being a Massachusetts Cultural Council Finalist. She has lectured at Southern Wetlands Conference in NM, and Springs Stewardship Institute in AZ. Benedict’s work has been written about by William Fox in Out of Site: Survey Science and the Hidden West, Wild Visions: Wilderness As Image and Idea, By Ben A. Mintneer, Mark Klett, Stephen J. Pyne, and Toronto Globe and Mail: Hidden Waters, The Story of Endangered and Disappearing Desert Springs in North America.