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Matthew Besinger (born 1978, Sleepy Hollow, Illinois) is an American artist and photographer. Currently based in New York, his subjects include the Southwestern desert, the night, American mythology, voyeurism, and holidays. His work follows extended timelines,

Projects From 2001-2005 Besinger shot the material that would compose Dead Desert Night. The book documents a series of surreal upheavals to the face of the Sonoran Desert since the 19th century. Strip mining, ranching, power production, and agriculture are seen as foes in a decidedly Western tale of land spoiled by human consumption and growth. The nighttime setting references the appearance of dead specimens in a museum, spotlit amidst fields of black. Besinger worked a total of seven years on the project; toward the end of photography in 2005 he was shot at by a rancher in Duquesne, Arizona. That event signaled the end of the project.

His work also appears in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Observer, Chicago Tribune, etc.

Lost projects From 1999-2001 Besinger co-directed (with Nicholas Zeltzer) a feature film titled "Slipknot" (a.k.a. "Gallow Tree" and "Castle of a Thousand Cages"). The film remains unfinished. It is a noirish fairy tale, following the character of Celia Hollebeck, who is carved from wood. The film weaves two distinct narrative threads: Celia is dispersed across a fictional desert in search of the man who created her while being pursued by a pair of agents who have been sent to eradicate her kind. The film made it to the CGI stage before being abandoned.

In 2003 he began work on a book of abandoned American amusement parks. The series was shot with a 6x9 view camera. Besinger consulted with architects and historians to piece together Early-Century parks that had been converted to everything from retirement communities and follow their contents as carousels were dispersed across the country. The negatives were stolen from his house

His grandfather,

As a teenager he began investing in the

Besinger