Seeing the Extraordinary

An eye for the unusual serves as a transformational guide for Linda Benzon’s photographic journeys, which are centered on “learning to see” the granular, the unexpected—the lines, forms and flow that nature offers.

Linda is a Lewes-based photographer whose imagery invites viewers to travel the region’s wildlife trails, surf the tides, meander along the beach and take in boardwalk sunsets. The Eastern Shore is ripe with material. “There are so many beautiful places right at my fingertips,” she relates.

Linda’s work will be on display at the Rehoboth Art League Regional Juried Photographic Exhibition from Jan. 9 to Feb. 8, and at the Milton Arts Guild from Jan. 13 to Feb. 24.

Linda uses the word “calm” to describe her photographic art.

“Life can be chaotic and painful,” she says. “I believe we all need to surround ourselves with art that helps us retreat a bit. Photography for me is a retreat. That is what I seek out and what I like to share with other people.”

A Trained Eye
Linda didn’t come to photography chasing a shot but, instead, she focused on learning how to look.
After retiring from an accounting business in 2011, she returned to photography with intention.

At the same time, her son Jeffrey had launched a commercial photography career of his own.

His advice: “Just go out and shoot.”

So, armed with a Nikon DSLR and curiosity, Linda did exactly that. “Basically, every day for several years I went out with
a camera,” she says.

Also, early momentum came through a beginner photography class at the Carlisle Arts Learning Center. “The gentleman who taught it—Guy Freeman—was all about seeing and learning to see.”

The exercises were deceptively simple. “One assignment was to go out and look for faces,” Linda says. “But not faces in the traditional sense.”

She found them in patterns—the texture of a bathroom rug, the curve of an object. “Another assignment was to look for the letter J,” Linda relates. “So, I learned to look beyond the obvious.”

That shift reshaped everything. “Now, I’m not just looking for the cool bluebird shot,” she explains. “What is it about the background or the posture or the behavior that tells a story?” On a walk through a wooded neighborhood trail, she noticed sharp tree shadows crossing a path layered in pine needles. “For me it became about the lines and angles more than the beautiful leaves. How do I capture something that helps others see what I just saw and appreciate it?”

Beauty Everywhere
Linda’s photography has naturally gravitated toward landscapes and the natural world. “Most of the time I’m not planning to go somewhere to shoot a certain thing,” she says. “I’m going out and enjoying what is around me and I’m ready for whatever I come across.”

From woodland trails near her home to Cape Henlopen, Prime Hook, Bombay Hook, Blackwater and Assawoman Bay, the region continues to shape Linda’s work.

When she’s not photographing, she and her husband spend time outside. “We go to the beach, ride our bikes and most of the time I have a camera with me,” she says. CS