Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > BENSON, Dorothy
Artist Database
BENSON, Dorothy
- Born
- Montreal, Quebec, 1901
- Died
- Kingston, Ontario, 1996
- Biography synopsis
- In 1936 Dorothy Benson joined the Montreal Camera Club (MCC) to improve her photography. At the beginning of World War II, she left Montreal to join the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service where her photography skills served to document the activities of a training establishment in Galt, Ontario with over 3000 pictures. Upon her return to Montreal, Benson became an active member of the MCC and eventually served as the Club's first female president from 1965-67. In the early 1970s, she moved to Kingston, Ontario where she became a devoted member of the Kingston Photographic Club (KPC), helping younger members with their technique and editing the Club's newsletter"Camera Capers." Benson's preferred subject was wildlife; she would go to great lengths (braving nesting birds, stinging jelly fish and tough terrain) to capture animals through her lens. Her camera accompanied her on the countless camping excursions and canoe trips she undertook as a Girl Guide leader. Two trophies awarded annually to the MCC and the KPC's top nature photographers bear her name.
- Media used
- Photography
- Education
- Vermont School of Photography
- Memberships
- Montreal Camera Club, 1936 (president 1965-67)
- Kingston Photographic Club, 1970
- Toronto Guild of Photography
- File & Archive locations
- Queen's University Archives, ON
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, ON
- Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, ON
- McCord Museum Archives, QC
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- "Our New President." Cameragram (Montreal) 1965
- Deans, Barbara and Yseult Mounsey. Women's World Exhibition of Photography Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Camera Club, 1967
- Fitsell, Bill. "Fitsell's People: Dorothy Benson." Kingston Whig-Standard 29 Jan. 1999
- Langford, Martha. Suspended Conversations: The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums. Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001
- Lee, Jerry. "Photography is 'Art' with Light for Paint Claims Camerawoman." Montreal Star 25 Nov. 1961: 17
- Ward, Olivia. "Photographer Sees Nature Unfold." Gazette (Montreal) 17 Sept. 1965: 38
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19650917&id=bqUtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h58FAAAAIBAJ&pg=7227,3679306
Writings by- Benson, Dorothy. "Camera Capers." Kingston Photographic Club Newsletter January 1975: 2
- Benson, Dorothy. "Camera Capers." Kingston Photographic Club Newsletter February, 1975: 2
- Benson, Dorothy. "Camera Capers." Kingston Photographic Club Newsletter April, 1977: 2
- Benson, Dorothy. "Some Thoughts of a Nature Photographer." Cameragram (Montreal) ?
- Benson, E. Dorothy. Come Camping Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Council of the Girl Guides Association, 1954
