Timon Benson Last Embrace
Voice of Matter is a debut solo show by Timon Benson (b.1998, Manchester), an artist at the early stages of practice whose work is gaining significant national and international acclaim across the contemporary arts. This exhibition welcomes you to witness a key moment in Benson’s journey as he explores the possibilities of the photographic medium.
This show calls for a return to the very nature of the photograph. Benson investigates the intricacies of the human condition and the potential for human emotion to suspend time — a notion mirrored in the very act of photography. At the centre of the exhibition is a question: What does it feel like to be incredibly alive? Benson pursues this idea across different modes of image-making. In the portraits, we see moments of tenderness and connection, often involving close friends. In the luminograms, light itself becomes the subject, recorded directly onto photosensitive paper without the use of a camera. These two practices speak to each other, forming a dialogue between clarity and abstraction. Light is choreographed as a unifying element, acting not just as a tool of photography but as a metaphor for emotional intensity and memory.
Voice of Matter marks a shift in Benson’s methodology. While Benson is known for his social documentary works of youth, family and friendship, this body of work marks an embrace of abstraction and intuition. Throughout this process, Benson surrenders to instinct as both a practical gesture and conceptual inquiry. -
Writing by Kymara Akinpelumi
Instagram: @timonbenson
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I would like to communicate through photography. In many ways my work is still in formation, still testing and navigating. Several interests are prominent, which can be categorised as relationships. For example; relationships between people, between places/spaces and between feelings. I long for what I call sustained immediacy, which I understand to be eternal issues, relevant for human consideration. How to be a son, a friend, a meaningful, sensitive human, in the world, but also to be valuable to myself. What I put into the camera, and what comes out on the paper goes through an internal emotional process which I hope has resonance for all of us.
Timon Benson
Voice of Matter
The Studio
45 Park Town, Oxford, OX2 6SL
25 October–
16 November
