Benton is a Professor of Architecture and former department chair at UC Berkeley. He harbors considerable passion for Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) and its associated historical, applied, and artistic dimensions. Benton takes his photographs using relatively simple handmade equipment. The camera is positioned by walking the kite around and aimed using a homebuilt, radio-controlled cradle. Composition is accomplished in absentia as he imagines what the camera above would see. “Kite aerial photography appeals to that part of me, perhaps of all of us, that would slip our earthly bonds and see the world from new heights. An aerial view offers a fresh perspective of familiar landscapes and in doing so challenges our spatial sensibilities, our grasp of relationships.”(hidden ecologies)