I have worked over the last thirty years as a psychologist, an educator, and the founding executive director of a non-profit, youth mentoring program. These past few years, I have cut back on professional and clinical responsibilities so that I might devote greater time to my photographic work, a long-standing passion.
In both clinical practice and photographic studies, I look to understand the stories of people's lives and the worlds they inhabit: how they live, what they feel, what they dream, and ultimately, how they find meaning. Through this process, I am frequently moved as I witness the dignity and courage of others in their efforts to make meaning of their lives.
As much as I am interested in capturing the world outside, my work is also an exploration and expression, both conscious and unconscious, of my internal experience. Paying attention to what attracts me, what I shoot, and what I publish, I too look to make meaning.
While my earlier photographic work often focused on people and environments, my current practice has expanded to include natural and constructed spaces, not as a retreat, but as another place where story, memory, and feeling reside. A misty forest path, a quiet corner of a room, or a still riverbed can carry the same emotional weight as a human portrait. These spaces become metaphors, or perhaps mirrors, for the internal landscapes we carry. I am drawn to the poetry in disorder - the tangled, imperfect, and fleeting arrangements of light, matter, and moment. Chaos, messiness, and beauty, the raw materials of life, when acknowledged and embraced, can sometimes lead us to a feeling of stillness and calm...if we are lucky.
I share my vision here with the hope that something will resonate with the viewer. In the final analysis, we all want to be understood and hope that our vision and our stories will resonate with others. In so doing, we (or maybe I) may feel less alone.
Benson Forman