Richard Benson 1943-2017

Lee Friedlander, Richard Benson, Newport, Rhode Island

Very sorry to learn this morning of the death of the fine printmaker and the expert on the reproduction of pictures Richard Benson, who died either on June 22nd (Wikipedia) or 23rd (Artforum). A fine printmaker for many years, master of many processes and involved in many fine books and exhibitions, Richard Benson was a polymath of the subject, recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant and the subject of a profile (in the Dec. 17 1990 issue) in The New Yorker. 

He served as Dean of the Yale School of Art (long an incubator for photographers—Walker Evans once taught there) for the decade from 1996 to 2006. In 2008 he co-curated the exhibit "The Printed Picture" at the Museum of Modern Art, which, as Artforum said, "traced the changing technology of making and distributing pictures from the Renaissance to the present." The book that resulted from that show, also called The Printed Picture, was our Book of the Year that year and has given me much pleasure since. It's our best single connection to his far-flung and far-reaching career.

I didn't know him but I'm aware that he was well connected in the New England and East Coast photography worlds and that he had many friends. Surely an obituary will be forthcoming from the Times, which I will try to alert you to when it appears. Our condolences to his friends, family, and loved ones.

Mike
(Thanks to Robert Newcomb)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP/Yale Spring Photo Book Offer
(Ends June 30th or when supplies run out)

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

John Holland: "By a strange coincidence, I'd been thinking a lot about Richard Benson the last couple of weeks, prompted by my purchase of your Yale book sale. Benson himself appears in several photographs in the two Friedlander books (he's well regarded in the biz as the printer for many of Friedlander's best books); Benson first made his name as a darkroom and book printer for Paul Strand; and, to bring things full circle, Benson's apprentice, Thomas Palmer, did the plates for the Friedlander books.

"Going through the Yale books prompted me to re-read The Printed Picture, which was probably the first book I ever bought as a TOP recommendation. Then I re-watched the video series Benson did for MoMA back in 2009, available here. Just finished that on Saturday. Now I learn that he passed.

"The Yale book sale now feels to be a bit of an inadvertent but timely tribute to Richard's long career, especially to the many ways he improved the printing of photographs in books, reflected in the superb quality of these three. Such a talented, smart and vital person. Condolences to his family and many, many friends."

Mark Sampson: "I only met Chip Benson once, about seven years ago at a non-photographic gathering. I knew of him through books about Paul Strand, as well as the MoMA exhibit of 'The Printed Picture.' He was great company and was pleased to see me using a view camera. I wish I'd had the chance to know him better—he was one of the best of us."

Comments

[Ken Tanaka]

I did not know of Mr. Benson's death, either. Very sad to hear of this. Just a few weeks ago I revisited his "The Printed Picture" and encountered some of his other works while in NY. He certainly made some solid contributions to the photography and printing history fields.

[Marcelo Guarini]

I'm very sorry to learn this, my condolences to his family and friends. Among his many contributions to the photo printing world, Richard pioneered a multiple pass printing using todays pigment printers, which produces superb color prints.

[Daniel]

http://www.benson.readandnote.com/
You can see and listen to him on Photographic Processes and history at the link above. Interesting, clearly presented and worth the time to watch it.

[Dogman]

Very sad news. I've been a fan of Benson's since being introduced to his book "The Printed Picture". His online lectures having to do with printing processes is fascinating, in no small part due to his own effusive and congenial personality. Benson also did a very fine book of photographs, "North South East West".

[D. Hufford]

This is sad news. He was very a very knowledgeable man and interesting to listen to.

Although I very foolishly waited too long to buy the book, I have watched his 8 hour talk on it several times. http://www.benson.readandnote.com/allvideo

It is an education in itself.

[James Rhem]

I interviewed Richard Benson in connection with the books I've written on Ralph Eugene Meatyard. At one time there was a request from the editor of Aperture after Meatyard's death to create enlarged versions of some Meatyard images for an exhibition. Benson and James Baker Hall worked on the project together. Some images were produced, but Benson felt they never quite got it. He was a generous and energetic interview.

[Burton Randol]

Mike - a couple of comments on two of your recent posts, starting with the earlier one.

1. On the (then Leitz) 35mm Summicron:

I took a lot of shots with an M3 and an M4 in the 1960's, mostly using a 50mm 2.0 rigid Summicron, which was an excellent lens. On the other hand, the 35mm f2 Summicron (version I) I bought new around 1965 was not.

I processed my own photographs, and soon after I acquired the 35mm, saw that in enlargements on the order of 8x10, the pictures from the 35mm, although not actually bad, lacked the snap and vitality that I had come to expect from the
50mm. I then had a look at edge transitions of projected images using my grain microscope, and saw that hovering around edges there
were at least two (my memory is around 3) discernible faint focused ghost images, which was a standard occurrence with that copy of the lens.

I don't know if it was a bad production run or if, more likely, I simply got a rare bad copy. In any event, I didn't keep the lens.

2. On the subject of your memorial to Richard Benson:

Reading it reminded me of an episode in the 1960's. I didn't have the pleasure of knowing Benson, who came to New Haven after I left, but a Proustian memory was triggered by the fact that Benson was noted, among many other things, for very good prints he made from Walker Evan's negatives, and that reminded me of something else.

During most of the time my wife and I spent in New Haven in the 1960's, we lived in half of a townhouse we rented from John and Dorothy Hill. John was a professor of photography in the Graphics Arts/Design school at Yale, and he and Dorothy occupied the other two floors in the townhouse, which they owned. Walker Evans was at Yale from the mid-60's on, and I often met and spoke with him at parties given by the Hills, with whom both Evans, and my wife and I, were close friends (John later was the executor of Evan's estate). Subsequently, around the time we were leaving New Haven for New York, John told me that a small portfolio of selections of Evan's photographs, selected by Evans and printed under his supervision, as I recall, by Thomas A. Brown, who was also at Yale and widely considered a world-class printer, was to be created in an edition of 100, each print numbered and signed by Evans. John promised me that he could assure that we could, if desired, purchase one of the portfolios. Money (I was a junior academic then) was scarce, but we could have managed the (by modern standards unimaginably puny) cost. However, to eternal later regrets, we felt at the time that we had to pass on the offer. Perhaps as a bibliophile, you have had a similar experience, letting slip by something you could and should have acquired.

[Brian]

I'm very sorry to hear of this loss.

Richard Benson printed Paul Strand's final portfolios, under Strand's exacting supervision, which gives us some idea of how good a darkroom printer he must have been. He also managed to serve as carer to the aging Strand during this time.

If it's still available I would very strongly recommend episode #22 of the "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom" podcast, on iTunes, which is a 40-minute interview with Benson and his printing partner Thomas Palmer.

"The power that the photograph gets out of its assumed connection to the world from which it was made is almost always stronger than the idea of the artist who tries to alter it."

-- Richard Benson

[Martin E Rich]

Benson Obit in NY Times Wednesday edition

[David Comdico]

This is truly sad news. His talk at readandnote is pure gold. Watch it if you haven't already.