Benstamatic

In 2010 I had my very first photographic exhibition. Having been thrown into the photo competition circuit at an early point of my career, I was surrounded by images that were perfect in all aspects; they were expertly crafted, they were impeccably presented, and the images told stories worth thousands of words. But what happens to all the images without so much depth, that were imperfect, that were moments captured without a plan, that perhaps were not part of a larger cohesive body of work?

My exhibition was named “Benstamatic v1” and the idea behind the creation of this body of work was to highlight the unimportance of camera gear. During my journey as a professional photographer over the past 2 decades I have discovered that the best camera equipment can often hinder creativity and is the difference between getting the shot or missing it. There is one camera that is almost always with us though, and it’s the one that sits in our pockets or hand bags. Nowadays the camera quality in our phones isn’t to be scoffed at, but in 2010 the quality of a typical iPhone left a lot to be desired. There was something about the digital lo-fi’ness though, and the imperfections weren’t always unwelcome.

My exhibition consisted of 8 editioned photographs, and on my opening night I sold 30 pieces. The funny thing about my exhibition was that I planned and printed the entire thing in 3 days, so this was a huge success.

The solo exhibition then evolved into Skrambled Eggs which was the first annual group phone photography exhibition that the world had seen, and this ran for 8 years straight until 2018. Within this group exhibition, I integrated my own Benstamatic series of images which you will see in this gallery.

Eventually I learned about sequencing images for exhibition and learning how to piece together a cohesive body of work, but this usually only happened during the post production phase and didn’t dictate what or how I photographed a subject matter. I explore individual scenes and experiment for the sake of curiosity more than for a body of work.

Benstamatic v1

Benstamatic v2

Benstamatic v3

Benstamatic v4

Benstamatic v5