Benjamin Swett
Benjamin Swett is the author of Route 22 and New York City of Trees, which won the 2013 New York City Book Award for Photography. His essay collection The Picture Not Taken will be published by New York Review Books in the fall of 2024; recent essays have appeared in Agni, Arnoldia, Salmagundi, Orion, Prism International, and Fiction magazines. He is the author and photographer of guidebooks to the Hudson Valley and to New York City’s Great Trees, and collaborated with the singer/songwriter Heather Woods Broderick to produce the collaborative book/CD of tree photographs and songs Home Winds.
A writer and photographer for the New York City Parks Department for 13 years, Swett founded the Parks in Print program, which produced books, brochures, maps, and guides for parks around New York City’s five boroughs. He currently teaches writing at City College in Manhattan and is senior photographer for the Notion Archaeological Project in Turkey. He was named the 2024 Larry Lederman Photography Fellow at the New York Botanical Garden. His photographs are in private, corporate, and public collections including the Museum of the City of New York. On Instagram he is @benjaminswettnyc.