Richard Benson at MoMA
Friday, October 17th, 2008
The Printed Picture
Exhibition on view: October 17, 2008 – June 1, 2009
Lecture: Saturday, October 18, 2008, 11:30 a.m. with Diana Bush
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, New York
An educational installation portraying the history of picture-making is now on view at the Museum of Modern Art. The show includes sixty enlarged details magnified fifty times to reveal the technical elements involved in printing. The exhibition opens in conjunction with the release of The Printed Picture, a book by master printer Richard Benson, that traces the changing role of technology in producing multiple images. Benson, who has worked as a printer and photographer for over forty years, is known for his incredible ability to produce outstanding photographic prints. In fact, Benson printed several Paul Strand limited-edition prints for Aperture Foundation, including Wire Wheel (pictured), Alfred Stieglitz, Lake George, St. Francis Church, Rancho de Taos, and a platinum print of Wall Street, of which there is only one left. Benson also printed Strand’s Garden Portfolio (Portfolio Four), which consists of 10 gelatin-silver photographs, printed under Strand’s supervision in the artist’s darkroom in Orgeval, France, shortly before Strand’s death.
