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In the Balcony Gallery for Florida Artists, Benson explores the world and what it means to be human through his meditative black-and-white photographs of everyday people and scenes.

“There is something extraordinary about finding magic in things, places, people and processes never intended to carry any grand significance,” Benson said. “It’s long been known that photographing something places importance on the subject — even the mundane.” Taken throughout the world, his photographs are influenced by the existentialist writings of Camus, Kafka and Dostoevsky.

Benson is a professor of Photography and Video and chair of the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies, School of Photography at Daytona State College. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies and Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts/ArtsMidwest Fellowship. His work is represented in numerous collections, including the Museum of Fine Art-Houston; Detroit Institute of Arts; Centre Georges Pompidou; and the Museet for Fotokunst in Denmark. His works have been displayed worldwide in Argentina, South Korea, Syria, Poland and China.

The Appleton Museum, Artspace and Store are open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. A campus of the College of Central Florida, the Appleton Museum of Art is located at 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, east of downtown on SR 40 (exit 352 east off I-75 or exit 268 west off I-95). Parking is free. For more information, call 352-291-4455 or visit