• Navigation
  • Home
  • Search Photos
  • Photographers
  • Special Sale
  • Photo Exhibits
  • Member Dealers
  • Collecting
  • Newsletter
  • Calendar
  • Photo Links

• Archive Newsletters
• Issue #261
• Article

By Alex Novak

Benjafield had contributed text to "A Victorian Gentleman's North Norfolk" about the Norfolk photographer W. J. J. Bolding.

I learned through Dr. Michael Pritchard and the British Photographic History website that John Anthony Benjafield, a private dealer in photography and a photo historian, recently died. Born in March 1938 during the war years in Britain, John or Ben, as most of us knew him, was based in Norwich, Norfolk, UK, Benjafield was a dealer in vintage and collectible photography, photographic illustrated books, and often attended the photo auctions and fairs from the 1980s to 2000s. He was a regular exhibitor at the former London Photograph Fair, held at the old Bonnington Hotel.

More recently, Benjafield had turned his attention to sharing his extensive photographic knowledge, especially that of East Anglia, and contributed text to "A Victorian Gentleman's North Norfolk" about the Norfolk photographer W. J. J. Bolding (1815-1899). In 2016 he set up a website: Early Norfolk Photographs 1840-1860.

As I noted in my own comment on the posted obituary: "Ben was a friend, whom I had the pleasure of working with in photography for nearly 25 years. As others have noted, he was a true gentleman with extensive photography knowledge that he was always willing to share readily with others. So sad to hear of his passing. A great loss to the photography field and to his friends and family."

Novak has over 48 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formerly board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.