Benjamin Swett

Benjamin Swett is a writer and photographer whose books experimenting with photographs and text include Route 22 and New York City of Trees (which won the 2013 New York City Book Award for Photography). He is the author and photographer of guidebooks to the Hudson Valley and to New York City's Great Trees, and collaborated with the singer/songwriter Heather Woods Broderick to produce the collaborative book/CD of photographs and song Home Winds. His recent essays have appeared in Salmagundi, Orion, Prism International, and Fiction magazines; two were chosen as notable essays in Best American Essays 2020 and 2021. He has received grants and fellowships from The International Grenfell Association, Furthermore, the Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Breadloaf Writer's Conference and has been featured in articles in The New York Times and The New Yorker and on radio programs and podcasts such as NPR's All Things Considered and Person, Place, Thing. A writer and photographer for the New York City Parks Department for thirteen years, Swett founded the Parks in Print program, which produced books, brochures, maps, and guides for New York City's underserved parks. He currently teaches photography at Wave Hill in the Bronx and writing at City College in Manhattan; his photographs are in private, corporate, and public collections including the Museum of the City of New York.