"The book is a rich source of the kinds of things that make the state such an interesting place, and a look back at one of the most fertile times in its history, the 1980s." --
The Washington Post "Benn paints a complex and surreal picture of his native state in the newly resurfaced project."
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Huck "The issues and tensions in the over 100 images, whether ecological or political, are often still present, making
A Peculiar Paradise a timely return to this decades-old work." --
Hyperallergic "A cross-section of heady, South-Atlantic life emerges from this half-autobiography, half-ethnography as Benn assumes a naturalist's eye and a Rockwell-esque predilection towards the range of human emotion that can be portrayed in a still image." --
Musée
As seen in SouthFlorida.com, Miami New Times, WLRN, PDN Photo of the Day, The Guardian, Orlando Weekly, AI-AP, Albuquerque Journal
Nathan Benn was born in Miami, Florida, and worked for the
Miami News while attending Miami-Dade College and the University of Miami. Immediately after graduation he became a photographer for the National Geographic Society. Three-hundred of his photographs were published in
National Geographic magazine, and hundreds more in numerous books. In 1991 he was co-founder and President of Picture Network International, the earliest Internet digital asset management and online stock photo licensing platform. From 2000 through 2002, Nathan was the Director of Magnum Photos, Inc. In 2013 powerHouse Books published his award-winning monograph
Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972-1990.
Charles Churchward is known for his art direction, design, and editorial achievements in the publishing world and has worked for many of the most influential magazines of our age. Best known as the Design Director at
Vogue and
Vanity Fair at Conde Nast Publications. He is the author and designer of
Herb Ritts: The Golden Hour (Rizzoli 2011) and
The Eye And Visual Influence Of Alexander Liberman: It's Modern. (Rizzoli 2013), creator and designer of
Then: Photographs By Alexander Liberman (Random House 1995) and art director for the books
In Vogue (Rizzoli 2006),
Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People (Knopf 2007),
Extreme Beauty In Vogue (Skira 2009), and
The World In Vogue: People, Parties, Places (Knopf 2009).
Verna Posever Curtis is an art historian and curator specializing in photographs and other works of art on paper. Born in Miami Beach, she is a former curator at the Library of Congress and the Milwaukee Art Museum, her publications include
Photographic Memory: The Album in the Age of Photography (Aperture Foundation 2011);
Ambassadors of Progress: American Women Photographers in Paris, 1900-1901 (Terra Foundation 2001); and
F. Holland Day (Clio Press 1995).