Shannon Benine

Bio

As a North American artist, curator, educator and advocate, I am known for my dedication to advancing the discourse on expanded documentary photography, interdisciplinary approaches to art and community engagement. I constantly ask the question, what mechanisms are there to support marginalized communities from the decisions of hegemonic systems of power? My work examines the aesthetics, politics and ethics of past and present documentary techniques while it engages the viewer in a discussion and debate about the United States’ politically charged history of human rights. I am a queer (she/they) artist, who makes work almost exclusively about other subjects, but am deeply informed and enabled by this context. Drawing from years of intensive artistic research, I combine photography, video, sound, text and archival materials to create multimedia installations that reimagine existing methodologies within the broad scope of documentary practices.

My work has been held in several collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the National Centre of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia and the Kalaupapa National Historic Museum in Hawai’i. I have received grant support from multiple institutions including the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Midwest Society for Photographic Education and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. My work has been exhibited at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio; the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Illinois; the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts and the Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle, Washington.

I hold an MFA in Photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2007) and a BFA in Photography and BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts with a Minor in Art History from the University of Washington in Seattle (2003). I have taught photography in higher education for over fifteen years, including at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Vermont College of Fine Arts, Bradley University, Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) and Sonoma State University (SSU).

I live in Los Angeles County and work as a tenured Associate Professor of Photography and served as the Director and Curator for the Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography (2019-2023) within the Department of Art & Art History at the University of La Verne (ULV) in La Verne, California.