Clare Benson

Clare Benson is a photographer and interdisciplinary artist from Michigan. Her work explores themes of family history, tradition, and memory, as it draws conceptual links to her research in science and anthropology. In 2013, Benson received her Master of Fine Arts from University of Arizona, and in 2008 received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Central Michigan University. She is the recipient of numerous awards such as a Fulbright Fellowship to Sweden, a grant from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the 2015 Photolucida Critical Mass Monograph Award, the 2014 LensCulture Portrait Award, and the Joyce Elaine Grant Solo Show Award. Her work has been featured in exhibitions, screenings, and various publications throughout the US and internationally. Benson is currently working between the US and Sweden.

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The Shepherd’s Daughter

The Shepherd’s Daughter is deeply rooted in my family history.

My mother died when I was eleven; something my child mind could only liken to the death of an animal—those the only other deaths I had known. And so I grew up with my father: an avid hunter, archery champion, and former hunting guide in the Alaskan wilderness.

Before my father, my grandmother was a hunter and before that my great-grandmother and long before that the stars made up constellations that told stories of the greatest hunts. In my work, nuances of the rural northern Michigan landscape of my childhood are woven with narratives that speak to the fragility and strength of time and nature.

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To view more of Clare’s work, please visit her website.