Famous Tios Tacos Illustrated for the Riverside Art Museum Exhibit Photograph

Benoit Malphettes, the French-born American photographer, had his fashion images appear in French Vogue by his early 20's. As his career brought him to New York and Los Angeles, he decided in 1977 to make the U.S. his permanent home. Benoit's strong signature style and his mastery of the large format camera quickly gained international recognition, with his work published in French and American Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, Essence and others. His fashion and editorial work reflected the era of the 80’s Supermodel icons like Iman, Jerry Hall, Rene Russo, Cindy Crawford, who graced his work. His portraits were also sought after by the political and business elite of the West Coast such as Eli Broad, Governor Deukmejian, Assemblymember Jose Medina, and Mayor Riordan among others. Reaching his sixties, at a time of life when most of us aspire to spend their years in leisure, Benoit saw it as an opportunity of transformation to enter a period of increased conceptual creativity. He decided to leave the commercial part of his photography and moved to a more contemplative environment near the California desert. There, he built a personal studio in his new home and now uses a technical view camera, the digital-age version of the large format that allows him to retain some of the magical art of the film days. From this artistic retreat came an introspective body of work using his distinctive imagination within Still Life and Fine Art Photography. Benoit’s photography is represented in the permanent collections of public institutions, several museums, and in numerous private collections across the US and Europe. Since 2015, his work was featured in two solo exhibitions in California museums and was part of the exhibit "Facing Fire" at the California Museum of Photography. His latest collection “Open to Interpretation” will be exhibited at the County Museum of San Bernardino in Redlands in August 2022. Benoit has received the California Journalism Award for his portrait of Dr. Sterling Stuckey and in 2018, his work was included in New York’s MoMa exhibit “Is Fashion Modern”.