Daiter Contemporary is excited to introduce the work of Ben Gest. A recent graduate student from Columbia College, Ben is one of Chicago's rising young photographic artists. The subjects of Ben's photographs are situational domestic relationships. The people portrayed in these mundane events play parts both connected and detached from one another. Through this unspoken modern tension Gest defines our understanding of personal space and how we share it with others.

Gest works hard to have what he creates result in a believable interpersonal situation, so much so that he sometimes finds himself asking whether his pictures are closer to a reality he knows because he has pieced them together from separate exposures of each person or if they begin forming, another parallel world entirely.
David Travis, curator
The Art Institute of Chicago

Ben Gest's photographs invite a dialogue that explores the ideas behind how photographs are made to look photographic. Ben is among a new generation of photographers who ask us to reconsider just what is photographic? Gest challenges us to consider the analogous relationship of reality and narrative. Ben's photograph combine the characteristics of documents and the attributes of fiction in such a seamless way that we are reminded that images are their most effective when we don't think to recognize the difference.