Opening Night!

What a great opening reception for The Windsor Art Center's Journey's End exhibition on Saturday night! Well over 150 in attendance, I'm told, which gave the evening an amazing energy. It was a pleasure to be able to chat with other photographers and exchange some of the stories about our work. I was fortunate enough to be given an Honorable Mention as part of the awards ceremony for my photo Passage.

The photo in question, Passage, was taken in January at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford on the day my brother Andrew died (the result of an accident). At the hospital I had turned the wrong way coming out of the restroom, and found this tableau of corridor and late afternoon sky. The depth of the interior hallway somehow mingled with, or perhaps overtook, the world outside the window. I felt adrift in the strange and illusionary space of impending loss and end of a life’s journey. It continues to be difficult to talk about, I still don't really know what to say, but perhaps this image can communicate something relevant to you.

The prize winners and curators (left to right, photo courtesy Mike Taylor): Alexander Harding (Juror - Senior Photographer at The Yale University Art Gallery); Phillip Simon (Honorable Mention: The End is in Sight); Marianna Martino (Co-Curator); Josh Guicherit (Co-Curator); Laurel Pepin (2nd Place: Elevate); Michael Ross Bentley (Honorable Mention: Passage); Renee Sawyer (1st Place: Leaving You/Me); Jose Daniel Falero (3rd Place: I Follow the Road Though I Don't Know Where it Ends); (not pictured) Kristin Long (Honorable Mention: Hillside Flowers)

Passage (2025) Michael Bentley