Ben :
"No such thing as a bad photo"

" I sought to abandon art, but I became an artist,
I sought to love, though I did love but myself,
I sought to be someone, though it was nothing,
I sought to be creative, though I do the same as everyone else,
I sought to tell the truth, but it all came out lies "

Who is Ben?

"There's no such thing as a bad photo so I'm quite happy to show off my family snap shots and photos of loused up fantasies. And I feel ok about tearing a photo up into little pieces. I'd have to, if I ever wanted to take those really great ciba chrome shots like those guys who give out orders down the 'phone.

I guess that wouldn't be real creativity though, would it?
Photography makes my head spin. It's too easy. It's all around us. Even when it's bad it's good.
This is one of Aunt Angela smiling, this is Vietnam just before the Americans bombed it. This is cousin Edward two weeks before he died.

This one's a march through Sarajevo in 1914. And this one shows a couple of Aborigines crossing a tarmac road in Australia. I'm not a great photographer but, believe me, I would really have loved to take photos using any stuff lying around. I wish I could have photographed Daniel Templon, sitting at his desk, real tears running down his cheeks; then Nahon would have got the job at the Arts Plastiques instead of him.

I wish I could have photographed the Dalai Lama just when a butterfly landed on his head out of the blue.

I wish I could have photographed Mitterand in the Observatory park 10 minutes before the attempted assassination.

I would have photographed stuff you never see, but that's difficult."


Ben.