Benjamin Privitt

Kirsten arrived in San Francisco from Denmark during the 1940's. Her devotion to her garden is only excelled by her connection to her AIDS hospice volunteer work at Maitri, a residential compassionate care facility. As she is in kinship with those she serves, she is also in direct connection to Spirit through its expression in the garden she stewards from season to season. By giving grace an honored place to grow, it thrives and rewards in abundance.

Benjamin Privitt is a Northern California native. He was told by his mother, when he was a high school senior and yearbook photo editor filling out college applications, that there was no way she was going to send him to a four-year college to learn how to "take pictures." Thus, young Benjamin found himself attending New York University, and graduating with a BFA in Acting – a degree with only marginally more maternal approval than photography. He has performed with a number of regional companies (TheaterWorks, California Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Shotgun Players), winning several awards. His production work with Grace Cathedral, San Francisco has been with the Webby Award-winning website GraceCathedral.org, on their acclaimed television program LightWorks, and with the weekly talk show The Forum at Grace Cathedral. Returning to photography many years later, he works primarily with floral subjects in their natural environments, and is included in a number of private collections, including that of his mother.

"It was the flowers in my neighborhood that implored me to pick up my camera after a decade's dormancy. They wanted someone to witness their brief lives, chronicle them in a lasting way, and share them with others. When I accepted their offer, I was accepting their subsequent education as well. The learning has consisted of recognizing the enormous gift that nurturing soil, the westerly breeze, sunlight and shade, and pure water bring them, and that they give to us. The flowers make of themselves gifts to the garden and to those who can accept their offering.

"And so, I have continued to work in a heart-based fashion as a dilettante photographer. Being guided to my subjects by impulse and mutual desire, I release any constraints of art making or self-imposed structure. My technique is one of mindful chaos, conscious chance. I am always surprised with what wishes to be revealed, and then strive to compose the print to tell the subject's story as simply as is possible."

Benjamin Privitt
email: benjaminp@gracecathedral.org