THE SHEPHERD’S DAUGHTER

THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER


CREDITS

GUP Author

GUP TEAM


Artist

Clare Benson

Artist Website

clarebenson.com

Mythology and history are important facets in this series from American photographer Clare Benson. Her work The Shepherd’s Daughter provides a link to her familial lineage of hunters, tracking back through her father to her grandmother and great grandmother before her.

Benson says that: “After the death of my mother when I was eleven years old, I became increasingly curious about notions of family, memory, and mortality.” These ideas allow her to tie her family’s identity to the land where they live and the animals that they hunt.

Raised by her father — an avid hunter, archery champion, and former hunting guide in the Alaskan wilderness — Benson’s understanding of nature is one of practicality. The relationship between hunter and prey is not shied away from in her work, she instead uses it to show a chimerical relationship between man and beast.

Benson is currently based in Sweden as a Fulbright Fellow. As a recipient of the Joyce Elaine Grant Solo Show Award, she currently has a solo exhibition at Texas Woman’s University, which runs from February 11- March 13, 2015.