Michael Benson

1962 Born in Munich, Germany

1984 B.A. English and Photography, SUNY-Albany
1989-91 NYU Graduate Film School
Lives and works in New York City

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2013
Michael Benson, Planetfall, Hasted Kraeutler, New York, NY, January 24 - March 9
2011
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Stauth Memorial Museum, Montezuma, Kansas, October 8 - December 4
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, The Petaluma Museum, Petaluma, California, May 7 - July 4
Michael Benson, Jenseit des Blauen Planeten (Beyond the Blue Planet), Astronomie Wien - Planetarium, Kuffner- und Urania Sternwarte, Vienna, Austria, May 6 - June 6
Michael Benson, Hasted Kraeutler, New York, NY, February 3 - March 26
2010
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes. California University of Pennsylvania, California, PA, December 4 - April 17, 2011
Michael Benson, Da draussen - Planetenaufnahmen aus dem All (Beyond – Planet Recordings from Space), Natur-Musuem Luzern (Natural History Musuem of Luzern), Switzerland, November 12 – May 1, 2011
NASA presents BEYOND: Visions of Our Solar System, Dulles Gateway Gallery, Washington Dulles International Airport, September 30 - T.B.D. 2011
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes. Daura Gallery, Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, VA, September 18 - November 14
Michael Benson, Images from Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System. Long View Gallery, Washington DC, September 16 - October 24
Michael Benson, Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, May 26 - May 2, 2011
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes. Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, April 17 - August 29
2009
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, CA, November 13 - March 28, 2010
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Palazzo della Borza, Genoa, Italy, October 23 - November 1
Planeter i sikte (Planets in Sight), NRM Naturhistorisk Riksmuseet (Swedish Museum of Natural History), Stockholm, Sweden, June 16 - November 29
Michael Benson, Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Fondazione Cini, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy, September 23 - 28
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN, June 13 - August 9
Michael Benson, Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes, Minorite Monastery of St. Francis, Piran, Slovenia, June 16 - November 29
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, March 28 - May 24
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Museum of Arts and Science, Macon, Georgia, January 10 - March 8
2008
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, ETSU Natural History Museum, Gray, Tennessee, October 25 - December 21
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio, August 9 - October 5
Michael Benson, Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes, Gliptoteka Museum, Zagreb, Croatia, July 16 - August 21
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona, May 24 - July 20
Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes, Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, New Jersey, March 8 - May 4
2007
Beyond: Voyages to Venus, Mars, Europa & Io, American Museum of Natural History, NYC, April 14 - April 14, 2008

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2009
Benson, Michael. Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle Benson (Harry N. Abrams, New York; 320 pages, 11.5” x 11.5”). Companion volume to Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes (see below). (October 2009) Published in English and Japanese.

Benson, Michael. Beyond: A Solar System Journey (Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York; 128 pages), children’s book based on Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes (see below). (March 2009) Published in English and Korean.

2003
Benson, Michael. Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes (Harry N. Abrams, New York; 320 pages, 11.5” x 11.5”; paperback 2008). Published in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Foreword by Arthur C. Clarke, Afterword
by Lawrence Weschler. (October 2003)

Photographs published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Smithsonian, Rolling Stone, Interview, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune,The Village Voice, Believer, McSweeney’s, Filmmaker, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist (UK), The Times Magazine (UK), Geo (Germany), and many other publications (1980’s to present).

SELECTED FILMS

2008
Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Writer of More Places Forever “A Global Documentary Love Movie”, 150 minutes; 16 mm color film and digital video. Co-production between ZDF-Arte (German and French television) and Kinetikon
Pictures (Michael Benson’s production company), feature-length; 16mm and digital video. Broadcast on ZDF/Arte in November 2008

2005
Director, Writer and Producer of Predictions of Fire “A Film About Art, Politics and War”, 94 minutes; 16 mm color film. Coproduction between TV Slovenia and Kinetikon Pictures. Premiered at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, 1996.
1997 Director, Writer and Producer of Fragrant Harbor/UK-->PRC/Pass the Glass “A Colony in Transition”, 55 minutes; digital video transferred to Beta. Co-production between TV Slovenia and Kinetikon Pictures focusing on hand-over of Hong
Kong to China. (Completed and broadcast by the TV Slovenia Documentary Program June 1997).

SELECTED AWARDS

2004
First Prize for Design, Special Trade General Books Category at the 2004 New York Book Fair for Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes, Michael Benson (Harry N. Abrams, New York, October 2003)
1996
Best Documentary Feature Award, National Film Board of Canada, 1996 Vancouver International Film Festival for Predictions of Fire (2005)
Golden Minotaur (First Prize), Documentary Category, 1996 “Message to Man” St. Petersburg International Film Festival (Russia) for Predictions of Fire (2005)

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
PharmaSwiss SA, Zug, Switzerland
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts