TCF Ep. 650 - Ben Geier

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Arts, Visual Arts

4.8 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When photographer Ben Geier first began making images, it was his Midwest upbringing and a fascination with abandoned places that set him on a path of visual discovery. Over the past decade, Ben's work has led him across the United States in search of once-vibrant theatres, roadside restaurants, neon signs, motels, and storefronts—places that carry the texture of America's cultural and architectural history. What distinguishes his photography is not just what he shoots, but how he sees: with a design-informed eye for composition, color, and the quiet beauty in forgotten spaces. Trope Publishing Co That journey has culminated in Viewing Hours, Ben's debut book, which brings together more than 150 images from 15 states, capturing the fading allure of America's vernacular architecture and roadside culture. Rather than simply documenting decay, Ben's photographs evoke nostalgia, solitude, and a reverence for the stories embedded in these places—reminding us why these spaces matter and why they are worth remembering before they disappear entirely. Trope Publishing Co+1 Resources: Ben Geier https://www.bengeier.com/ Viewing Hours https://www.bengeier.com/pages/viewing-hours Bengeier Altadena Photographers https://www.altadenaphotographers.org/ Support Ibarionex & The Candid Frame GoFundMe BuyMeaCoffee eBook Purchases Websites The Candid Frame Patreon Page The Candid Frame PayPal Contribution Link Signed Editions of "Making Photographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow." Sponsors Charcoal Book Club https://charcoalbookclub.com Frames Magazine FRAMES Magazine | Because Excellent Photography Belongs On Paper (readframes.com) Education Resources: Momenta Photographic Workshops https://momentaworkshops.com/workshops/ Candid Frame Resources The Candid Frame Newsletter & Substack Blog The Candid Frame Alexa Skill Making Photographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow The Candid Frame Flickr Pool The Candid Frame YouTube Channel Contribute a one-time donation to the show thru Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/thecandidframe Support the work at The Candid Frame by contributing to our Patreon effort. You can do this by visiting patreon.com/thecandidframe or the website and clicking on the Patreon button. You can also provide a one-time donation via PayPal. You can follow Ibarionex on Instagram and Twitter.

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a quiet kind of beauty in the places we take for granted.
0:11.4	Libraries, roller rinks, strip malls, storefront churches, local museums.
0:17.8	These are the everyday spaces that shape the rhythm of American life, and yet they're disappearing.
0:24.6	Photographer Ben Geyer has spent the last several years documenting them before they fade entirely from view.
0:32.6	His book, Viewing Hours, America's Vanishing Culture, is less about nostalgia and more about presence,
0:41.9	about seeing what's still here, what's holding on, and what might soon be gone.
0:50.0	Shout with a sense of restraint and deep observation, the images are quiet but resonant.
0:56.1	They ask us to slow down to look more carefully and to consider the cultural space that define our communities,
1:03.7	not through spectacle, but through use and memory.
1:09.2	Ben's photographs are full of tension and stillness, empty chairs, echoing
1:14.3	hallways, corners of rooms that hint at stories untold. The work speaks to a shifting cultural
1:21.2	landscape, but also to the power of the ordinary. It reminds us that photography can serve as witness, as elegy, and as a love
1:31.4	letter. This is Ibarian X, and welcome back to the Candid Frame.
1:41.7	Ben, welcome to the show. It's good to have you.
1:44.2	Yeah, thank you for having me.
1:46.2	Your work in this book is really great. I always had had an affinity for Americana.
1:53.0	And I'm a little jealous of people who have found the time to go out there and take those road trips we all dream about to make these pictures.
2:05.7	But it's, for me, it's kind of poignant because I've lived in Los Angeles all my life.
2:10.5	And one of the things I've noticed about Los Angeles that you kind of comment in the book is the American tendency to not really treasure its memories.
2:16.2	You know, it's history.
2:17.1	Yeah, I mean, and how that's the cross-American now.
2:19.9	Things are just really quickly sort of torn down and eliminated for what passes as, you know,
	...

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