Naomi L. Ben-Shahar E-Catalogue by naomibenshahar

Naomi L. Ben-Shahar

Naomi L. Ben-Shahar’s interdisciplinary practice is centered around photography and ways to expand the outlines of what the medium constitutes, particularly through its intersection with craft and functionality.

Her current work presents analog large-format photos created with a 4x5 camera and printed on silver gelatin paper combined with weaves she makes as responses to the photos.

This combination creates an immersive environment that invites viewers to reflect on the interplay between technology and touch, as well as on photography’s functionality and agency today.

Naomi L. Ben-Shahar (b. 1965) lives and works in New York. She received a BFA from SUNY’s Empire State College, and an MFA from CUNY’s Hunter College. Her work was exhibited at the New Museum in NY, FA Projects in London, Torch gallery in Amsterdam, Art Process in Paris, Edith Russ Site for Media Arts in Germany, the Video Art Festival in Casablanca. She was represented by Hudson at Feature, Inc. gallery, and has also shown her work in NY at Printed Matter, Baxter Street Camera Club of NY, Gorney Bravin & Lee, FORMah, White Columns, and the Yeh Art Gallery at St. John's University.

She is the recipient of fellowships from UCLA, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Edith Russ Site for Media Arts in Germany, and Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. Ben-Shahar was a visiting artist/scholar at the American Academy in Rome, and was a Mid-Career Initiative Artist at Baxter St. Camera Club of NY.

Ben-Shahar was featured on The Art Angle podcast, and written about in The New York Times, Art in America, The New Yorker, Surface Design, Time Out NY, Cabinet, and Plus magazines.

Ben-Shahar was a founding image editor at Cabinet magazine; curated contemporary art exhibitions for the NY City Opera at Lincoln Center, taught photography at Fordham University and at the International Center of Photography in NY, and was an image editor for The New Yorker magazine and Abbeville Press.

We Are the Event Horizon of Existence Itself , 2024 Gold-toned gelatin silver print mounted on aluminum, hand weave (kid silk, cotton, coconut fiber, wool, pineapple fiber, alpaca, silk, metallic yarn, kid mohair) on custom loom.

5’1” x 5’1” x 2” (155 x 155 x 5 cm)

Ben-Shahar’s works bridge the gap between photography and craft by creating a dialogue between the two. Her large-scale photo constructions and smaller collages explore the physical and conceptual possibilities of juxtaposing photographic imagery with handmade objects.

She combines shaped, photographic prints of arid earth, captured with a view camera in the world’s oldest desert —evoking the harshness of arid environments shaped by shifting political and climate conditions—with slow, meditative handmade weaves.

The radiating, web-like, tactile weaves complement the photos and reframe photography as a material practice rather than solely a retinal one. This interdisciplinary approach asks how materiality and form contribute to meaning in photography today.

Ben-Shahar’s work encompasses, besides large photo-weave constructions, written photobased publications, collages, and video pieces.

Drawing on scientific and historical research, spiritual teachings, craft, and visual imagery, she explores themes of nature, domesticity, and technology through slow, deliberate processes such as analog photography, weaving, and painting.

Her work is guided by ecofeminist principles, expressing her role as a maternal caregiver and steward of the natural world, while reflecting on the interconnectedness of women and nature and the impact of patriarchal systems on both.

Primal Radiant Force, 2024

Gelatin silver print, handmade weave hinged on wooden loom

6'6' x 5'9" x 2" (198 x 180 x 5 cm)

Ben-Shahar’s large photo–weave constructions create a dialogue between the screen and the loom, connecting shaped analog large-format black-andwhite gelatin silver prints, mounted or alternatively hinged on aluminum, with handmade weavings. The curvy, body-like dunes in these photographs reflect themes of aridity, resilience, and the exploitation of natural and feminine forms. Smaller works include constructions and collages, integrating photographic imagery with weavings to explore materiality and form.

In her work, Ben-Shahar foregrounds imagery of landscapes and bodies, the domestic labor of weaving, and the histories and legacies of women, offering alternatives to dominant narratives of separation and hierarchy by presenting a unified universe constructed of seemingly opposite positions and modes of production. Her work combines equal amounts of art and craft, retinal mechanical and handmade tactile elements, figuration and abstraction.

The works invite viewers to engage with questions of interconnectedness and engagement. Whether through large-scale constructions or intimate collages, the works emphasize inclusion, tactility, and connectivity.