My father studied photography under Yoshi Higa and I grew up with his black and white prints on the walls of the house. I often wondered at these scenes of different cultures – the stories and emotions that they portrayed hinted at the ways photography can be interpretational.
When I was four years old I received my first camera: a polaroid 600. Soon enough I graduated to a Minolta and later I received a six megapixel digital camera – back when that sort of thing was a big deal. I have tried on many hats and cameras since then and I can say with certainty that I have no desire to shoot weddings. What draws me to Architecture is the way design and aesthetics play on human emotions and experience of a built environment. There is so much we don’t immediately see in a building: the way it flows, the feelings it promotes, how it captures and uses light throughout the day and throughout the seasons. When we visit a place like this, be it a home, a business, or a museum (my favorite), we experience it through a slice of time – one of many interpretations possible within a space. Photography works like that, I work to capture an interpretation of a space, often the only image that most people will see. The planning that goes into deciding on and photographing a particular interpretation to convey a particular message or feeling is what the detail oriented side of me loves most about this work.
Thomas Benjamin Photography 