Ben Buchanam

Born and raised in London, Ben Buchanan moved to the USA in 1978. He lived briefly in San Francisco, where he managed punk rock bands including The Dead Kennedys and The Offs, noted for their debut album cover art by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Buchanan eventually relocated to New York City. Whilst in New York, Buchanan worked as a video DJ at the Peppermint Lounge before becoming house photographer at the landmark nightclub AREA. His photographs appeared regularly in Details magazine, The Face and The New York Post. In 1987 Buchanan moved back to California, this time to Los Angeles, to work in the film industry. Whilst in Los Angeles, he became fascinated with the stark beauty of the desert and Buchanan turned his keen eye from the indoor smoke-filled clubs of New York City to the natural world. His striking photographs of the California and Arizona desert were featured in several exhibitions. By the 1990s, Buchanan was back in New York, where working as a photographer he shot album covers, interiors, advertising campaigns, and worked as an interior designer with the owners of AREA, who now have a string of successful restaurants, bars, and boutique hotels in New York City.
Buchanan currently resides in London and in addition to publishing his photographs in publications and showing his work internationally, he works as a Fine Art Conservator, specialising in paper. In addition to numerous solo and group exhibitions, Buchanan's iconic photographs of the New York City underground in the hedonistic 1980s have been published in magazines, auction catalogues, and have been featured in films and museum exhibitions internationally. His work was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum in 2016. Currently on view are his candid photographs of Keith Haring, which were part of the Keith Haring retrospective at the Tate Liverpool, now at BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium. Currently Buchanan's work is part of Keith Haring & Jean- Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia