Ben Gest

Ben Gest (1975- ), born in Caldwell, NJ, earned a Bachelor of Art degree from Rutgers University and a Master of Fine Art degree from Columbia College, Chicago. Gest’s images engage in photography’s history of telling the story of human life while challenging its traditions and expanding its visual language. Through subtle digital manipulation his ongoing work explores domestic narratives.  Photographed separately and then brought together and carefully arranged into often unsettling tableaus, Gest’s subjects  are frozen in emotionally and physically disconnected scenes.  More recent works involve contemplative portraits of single subjects; individuals lost in thought while performing mundane tasks. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Renaissance Society, Chicago; and Light Work, Syracuse, N.Y.  It has been collected by institutions such as The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the LaSalle Bank Photography Collection. Gest was an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College, before moving to New Jersey.  www.bengest.com