Photographer based in Providence, RI
Jake Benzinger, Portrait of the Photographer in the studio
What are you currently working on and where did the inspiration for it come from?
I’m currently working on my thesis/am in my 2nd and final year of graduate school at RISD. The project I’m working on is based on an ongoing collaboration with the medium Suzan “Fiona” Saxman, investigating the readings I have gotten from her while considering themes of phenomenology, belief, and the unknowable.
suzan and ghost, 2026, archival pigment print, 30"x40"
I grew up in an animistic household alongside being surrounded by loved ones with occult experiences throughout my life, so I’ve always been interested in an experiential truth outside of what is strictly ontological. However, I had been fairly agnostic towards most of it, believing in someone and their experience more than the actual belief in the existence of something beyond.
“For work that thinks so much about bodily knowledge, I think there’s room for images that grow out of theory just as much as there are for those that come about from intuition and chance.”
Left: i think her room is haunted, 2025, archival pigment print, 32"x24", Right: 3am, 2026, archival pigment print, 32"x24"
However, meeting Suzan has been a turning point. I firmly believe in her capabilities, and am not just open-minded to the possibility of its truth. So, pursuing this obsessive need to understand and trust Suzan and her readings has been an incredibly generative practice beyond just the making of the work. My practice and all that it encompasses is actively shaping and testing my personal belief, sort of in a religious way.
me and hannah, 2026, archival pigment print, 30"x40"
Describe your practice and process. Where do ideas start for you? In the studio or being in the world?
A bit of both; I spend a lot of time thinking and developing images before going to make anything, but I also let my curiosity and intuition take control in some cases. Sometimes that simply leads to a sketch and the visualization of something wrestling around in my subconscious, which I then “remake” in a more actualized way, or sometimes it results in "the” photo right from the get-go. For work that thinks so much about bodily knowledge, I think there’s room for images that grow out of theory just as much as there are for those that come about from intuition and chance.
winged bunny, 2026, Archival Pigment Print, 12" x 16"
Many artists live by their routines, what does yours look like?
Music is incredibly important to my practice, but what's inspiring me is always in flux. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of Sun's Signature, Esthero, Chelsea Wolfe, Portishead, Weyes Blood, and the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack (some of the best trip-hop ever).
Left: white horse, 2026, Archival Pigment Print, 24" x 18", Right: stump, 2026, Archival Pigment Print, 24" x 18"
Who are your biggest influences?
Twin Peaks is probably my biggest influence right now. I've been looking at less photography as of late; however, Maja Daniels and Lieko Shiga are probably the two image-makers who have been the most important to me in the past year or so.
Studio view
I also find a lot of inspiration from working on/publishing books, teaching, and collaborating with others. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities to learn new strategies for sequencing, thinking about images, and even the practice of making itself by sharing space and time with others.
Left: Studio view, Right: it's my rat rave and i can cry if i want to, 2026, Archival Pigment Print, 32" x 24"
Are there books or films that are an important source of inspiration?
Films: Cure (1997), The Blair Witch Project. Books: House of Leaves, Werewolf Movie
chalk ring, 2026, Archival Pigment Print, 24" x 32"
Stay up to date with Jake Benzinger
Website jakebenzinger.com
Instagram @jake_benzinger
Press Website wychelm.press
Press Instagram @wychelm.press