Hannah Rosales Reviews Shannon Benine

Shannon Benine is an American contemporary photographer. She holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been in several museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the National Centre of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia.

Currently, she has a project called Molokai which deals with certain individuals who were banished to Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai, Hawaii because they were infected with leprosy. (Hansen's disease). Although leprosy isn't transmitted through casual contact and most people are actually immune, these infected individuals "have endured intense social stigma and ostracism."

I cannot imagine what it's like to photograph something like this but I think it's important not only as contemporary art, but to our history also. I did not even know about this until I came across this photographer's work. These two photographs are of two patients and their two drastic expression. One patient looks as if he's holding onto bitterness and the other looks content. It's interesting how each of their journeys battling this illness has affected them.