Archives presented by the Creative Photography Center to Benn Mitchell

Benn Mitchell’s legacy, photographer sold his first photo to Life At the age of 16, the magazine continued to shoot at locations including New York and Hollywood, including the 1940s and 1950s, gifting his archives and offering $1 million to the University of Arizona’s Creative Photography Center. The fund was designated as the center’s collection, which includes approximately 110,000 works by more than 2,200 photographers.

“When I started looking for the right home for Benn’s work, I learned about the creative photography centers and their strong reputation for preserving archives. They weren’t just storing photos. They were learning with them, teaching with them and sharing with the public. This combination really made me feel like this was the right place.”

Benn Mitchell started taking photos at the age of 16 and moved from New York to Los Angeles a year later, where he shot movie stars including Humphrey Bogart and Gene Autry. In the 1950s, he founded a commercial studio in New York, where he continued to shoot various cultural life while also working in advertising and photography. He died in 2021 in Boca Raton, Florida, where his work was investigated and in 2023 at the Boca Raton Art Museum.

Below, see Benn Mitchell’s photo highlights in the Creative Photography Center Collection.