Serengeti Ibex, 2010 by Bremner Benedict
Just how far removed from nature are city dwellers in this day and age? With the seemingly unstoppable urbanization of mankind, how far do we have to go to reach "real" nature? And if these are the questions we are asking ourselves today, what about our children's future interactions with nature? Contender Bremner Benedict's series Re-imagining Eden, which just earned her an honorable mention for the 17th Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition, is replete with these types of questions. On her website, Benedict writes, "Changes produced by the industrial revolution inspired people to create places where our culture decides what is important to remember from disappearing habitats. Today's technology interrupts our ability to experience the natural world as pristine. Nature no longer serves as a source of our identity. This eroding sense of connection makes the shape of our future unclear."
Bwindi Mountain Gorilla, 2010 by Bremner Benedict
The co-owner of Klompching Gallery, Debra Klomp Ching, who served as the juror for this year's Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition—which includes work by Contender Susan A. Barnett—said Benedict's images of "children's relationship with the natural world are mesmerizing. With so much photography dealing with the environment," she added, "these understated and quiet images are also refreshingly bold and confident in use of metaphor, which extends the image beyond the intimate narratives played out inside the frame."
In her statement, Benedict asks, then explains:
Is nature still a place of enchantment? Is childhood a space of wonder where we learn how to connect to the natural world? Do these questions form a basis of the myths humans created to offset their fall from grace, dating back to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden? Using my daughter as a model, I am exploring enduring concerns of the influence on how we view nature. The inquiry is taken up by the young child we see engaging in habitats she may never experience because they are vanishing into a nostalgic past. Her bond is no longer inseparable with the natural world. It is unraveling. She is growing up in spite of it. The most elemental question—whether critical contemplation of the natural world through framing and representation, which transforms the facts of 'land' into the concept of 'landscape'—is boon or bane in maintaining a relationship with nature.
Pronghorn Antelope and American Bison, 2011 by Bremner Benedict
Benedict is a photographer based in Concord, MA. Her work has been included in over 20 exhibitions and has been collected by many museums and institutions, including the prestigious George Eastman International Museum of Photography and the Fogg Museum at Harvard. Re-imagining Eden was recently shown at the Hess Gallery of Pine Manor College.