Robert Gould Shaw Memorial c. 1973 - 2008

Richard Benson made this photograph of the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, with light and silver, stillness and depth. There's a beautiful tension in Benson's work between clarity and abstraction. The details of the soldier's faces, the textures of their uniforms – you can almost feel the weight of their rifles. But then, the way the light falls, the way the forms emerge from the shadows, pushes it toward something more mysterious. Look at the face of the soldier in the middle, how the light catches his cheekbone, defining the line of his jaw. It’s like a study in form, in the way light can sculpt a face. And that scroll to the side, its spiral form almost pulls the eye into another dimension, a vortex of history and memory. Benson's pictures remind me of Edward Weston's, that same commitment to the material of the thing itself. Both artists invite us to slow down, to really see, not just what's in front of us, but how it’s been shaped by light, time, and history. Ultimately, Benson’s photographs are less about capturing a definitive truth, and more about opening up a space for reflection and feeling.