Benjamin Dimmitt
Benjamin Dimmitt was born and raised on the Gulf Coast of Florida. He graduated from Eckerd School in St. Petersburg, FL the place he studied images and printmaking. He additionally studied printmaking at Santa Reparata Graphic Arts Centre in Florence, Italy and Metropolis and Guild Arts College in London, England. Dimmitt moved to New York Metropolis in 1976 and continued his research in images at each the Worldwide Heart of Pictures in NYC, NY and Santa Fe Photographic Workshop in Santa Fe, NM.
From 2001-2013, he held an adjunct professor place on the Worldwide Heart of Pictures educating black & white images and panorama images.
His images investigates interdependence, competitors, survival and mortality within the pure setting. He’s most curious in regards to the locations the place land and water merge and landscapes with animated and layered development that exhibit the intuition for survival and the persistence of life.
Dimmitt’s pictures have been exhibited in museums, galleries and festivals internationally and are held in a number of main museums and personal collections.
In December, 2024, Benjamin’s An Unflinching Look challenge was nominated for the eleventh cycle of the Prix Pictet. Based mostly in London, the Prix is widely known because the world’s main prize for images and sustainability. He lives and works in Asheville, NC.
The Environmental Points
The Chassahowitzka Nationwide Wildlife Refuge is a really fragile, spring-fed estuary on Florida’s Gulf Coast, 70 miles north of Tampa. I used to be overwhelmed by its lush, primaeval magnificence on my first go to in 1977 and have photographed there extensively since 2004. The dense palm hammocks and hardwood forests have been festooned with ferns and orchids, and the spring fed creeks have been a transparent azure. There are different related estuaries close by however the Chassahowitzka River and the encompassing wetlands are protected as a part of the federal Nationwide Wildlife Refuge system and the river itself is designated by the state as an Excellent Florida Water.
Alongside this a part of Florida’s flat west coast, crystal clear contemporary water rises up from springs inland and meanders slowly for miles by means of a hardwood swamp, by means of brackish marshes after which out into saltwater bays the place it merges with the Gulf of Mexico.
Pals of mine had a easy, distant cabin on stilts half-hour from the boat launch ramp and simply exterior of the refuge boundary. I visited them usually within the 1980’s and 1990’s and had my bachelor get together there.
I started photographing the Chassahowitzka in earnest within the 1990’s, bringing baggage of apparatus in an open outboard boat. It was a ravishing and pristine topic. I had by no means seen anywhere like these wetlands.
In 2004, I started a challenge, Primitive Florida, photographing landscapes in Florida that I felt have been susceptible to growth, rising seas and worsening storms. The Chassahowitzka was a favourite topic for the challenge. I lived in New York Metropolis on the time and made sure to go to the swamp every time I used to be in Florida. In 2014, when my host pulled round a creek bend in his skiff, I used to be horrified to see miles and miles of useless and dying bushes in each course. This devastation is the results of rising sea ranges brought on by international warming. I hadn’t visited the swamp in 2 years and wasn’t conscious that this influence of local weather change had arrived at these gulf shores. Within the 1970’s, I realized in school that, on account of international warming, glaciers would quickly start melting, that sea ranges would quickly rise and that storms would worsen worldwide. I assumed, with out cause, that these adjustments wouldn’t happen for a lot of generations. On that day in December, 2014, I realized that the long run had arrived and I started photographing the damage round me.
Early on, I made a dedication to myself to convey this story of degradation. It was troublesome to witness the environmental damage improve yr after yr. A major purpose for the challenge was to indicate what local weather change seems like and to make it clear that it’s occurring now. I didn’t shrink back. That is my native panorama, and I had been photographing it for many years earlier than the inundation started. I noticed the challenge as an elegy and a lament.
With a view to totally perceive what I used to be seeing and what I used to be photographing, I despatched my pictures of the ruined wetlands to marine scientists working at close by universities. They confirmed that my pictures depicted the impacts of rising seas and saltwater intrusion.
Early on, I made a dedication to myself to convey this story of degradation. It was troublesome to witness the environmental damage improve yr after yr. A major purpose for the challenge was to indicate what local weather change seems like and to make it clear that it’s occurring now.
The Chassahowitzka is a uncommon first-magnitude spring system originating many miles inland that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The supply of the spring’s discharge is groundwater within the aquifer, which is now solely partially replenished by rainfall soaking into the bottom. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of contemporary spring water are pumped from the traditional underground limestone and sprayed on lawns and fields, run by means of showers and flushed down bogs and used to generate electrical energy. What’s worse, Florida’s politicians allow non-public companies to siphon tens of millions extra gallons into plastic bottles on the market as ingesting water across the nation. Consequently, water circulate rising from the Chassahowitzka spring system has declined by greater than half: from 138 cubic ft per second earlier than 1980 to lower than 61 cubic ft per second in 2017.
Secondly, the water that also bubbles out of the spring is polluted by nitrate, a plant-growth nutrient that originates largely from fertilizers and animal and human waste deposited on the land floor or through septic tanks. Nitrate air pollution fuels the expansion of algae blooms that are smothering springs and the creeks they feed and placing human well being in danger. These algae blooms block daylight from coming into the creeks and is derived, killing all plant and animal life. What have been solely just lately vigorous, clear waters have turn into useless zones coated over by massive thick blankets of chartreuse algae.
Lastly, the contemporary water popping out of many springs is exhibiting indicators of a rising saltiness; for Chassahowitzka, the salinity is now 45 occasions better than it was in 1980. Traditionally, contemporary water flowed to the coast by means of spring creeks and rivers, holding in test the landward encroachment of salty Gulf waters. This stability protected upstream waters and the underground aquifer from saltwater intrusion for hundreds of years. However prior to now forty years, as huge portions of water have been pumped from the springs and aquifer, salt water has migrated landward, killing freshwater ecosystems and rendering the ingesting water unusable. The issue has turn into compounded by rising sea ranges within the Gulf. Coastal springs just like the Chassahowitzka are notably susceptible to sea-level rise and growing storm surges from the Gulf.
The issue has turn into compounded by rising sea ranges within the Gulf. Coastal springs just like the Chassahowitzka are notably susceptible to sea-level rise and growing storm surges from the Gulf.
Though many arms of Florida’s authorities measure and try to guard our springs, there is no such thing as a political will to mark the scenario of the springs because the emergency that it’s. No politician is prepared to put out to the folks of Florida why the rivers and is derived are dying and what should occur to vary that trajectory.
- Ruined Forest, 2015
- Blue Run Nonetheless Life 2, 2020
- Expired Palm Sapling, 2019
- Palms in Creek, 2017
- Three Palm Stumps, 2017
- Brent’s Savanna, 2015
- Skip’s Cover, 2015
- Roof View, 2016
- Collapsed Oak & Sawgrass Prairie, 2016
- Wendell’s Fog, 2018
- Diagonal Timber in Creek, 2021
- Creek Bend & Useless Timber, 2018
- Useless Palm in Creek, 2019
- Blue Run, Late Solar, 2020
- Impassable Creek, 2022
- Massive Mat of Poisonous Algae, 2021
- Fallen Palm & Fog, 2015