Local Photographer Benjamin Has Kept 'Eye' on Races Since 1950
By Ryan Schlehuber

Longtime Mackinac Island businessman Bob Benjamin has taken photographic scenes of the Chicago-to-Mackinac yacht race since 1950. He is pictured with one of the photographs he took during last year's race, which he made into a postcard. To the right of him is a vintage Speed Graphic camera, which he used years ago.

As colorful sails from the more than 400 yachts in the race to Mackinac appear on the Lake Michigan horizon, Bob Benjamin will be ready and steady with his camera, as he has been for every race since 1950.

Mr. Benjamin, 85, still captured scenes of the yachts as they pass through Round Island channel at the finish to a 333- mile race from Chicago.

He operates Benjamin's of Mackinac Island, a camera and gift store which publishes original postcards that he purchased from George Wickman, who started it in 1946.

With two popular yachting classics, the Bayview Yacht Club race up Lake Huron and the Chicago Yacht Club race up Lake Michigan, Mr. Benjamin saw a market in selling photographs of the racing yachts to their owners, crew, and spectators.

Bob Benjamin took most of his photographs of the Chicagoto Mackinac yacht race using black and white film on a fourinch by five-inch Speed Graphic camera. Today, he takes photographs with a more modern camera and uses color. He uses many of his photographs as postcards, which he sells at his film development and gift shop, Benjamin's of Mackinac Island. (Photograph by Robert Benjamin)

"I'd take my camera and go down and meet the boats and take photographs. I'd then go back, reprint them, and sell them the next day," said Mr. Benjamin. "It made for a very long day. It would usually be 3 a.m. by the time I finished."

The biggest challenge was getting the prints made before the racers and spectators left, so he recruited the assistance of a couple of college buddies who were also interested in photography. They helped the slow process of developing the 3.25- inch by 4.25-inch film and printing black and white photographs for the next day.

"The fun part about it was meeting the people," said Mr. Benjamin of the racing crews. "I got to talk with them and even got to go on the boats and look around."

Bob Benjamin posed future Mackinac Island Town Crier publisher Wesley Maurer Jr. (left) and West Bluff cottager Harold "Skip" Warp of Chicago reading the Town Crier on the Arnold Dock in 1961, the year Class D contender Blue Horizon won the Chi-Mac. The yacht on the cover of the paper is not identified, but Mr. Benjamin took that photograph, as well.

He learned to wear shoes with rubber soles to protect the decks of the boats.

In addition to crew portraits, his files contain lots of harbor shots showing hundreds of boats rafted across the bay and huge sails drying on the grass in Marquette Park.

"I always look for composition and finding that picture that really tells the story," said Mr. Benjamin. "If you can get an interesting picture that tells the story of the whole event, then you accomplished what you wanted."

Mr. Benjamin continues to photograph Island scenes, mostly for his postcard business. He still works with the same printer that he did in 1950, the Curteich publishing company of California, which used to be based in Chicago.

"I have up to 60 postcard images, four new ones this year," said Mr. Benjamin.

The Benjamin family has been a fixture on Mackinac Island since 1846, when Robert H. Benjamin, Bob Benjamin's grandfather, established a blacksmith shop on Hoban Street on the site where the Windsor Hotel would later be built. The blacksmith shop was moved to Market Street, just past Cadotte Avenue, and included a barn with four stalls for carriage tour horses.

Bob Benjamin's father, Herbert, eventually took over the blacksmith operation and served at different times as postmaster and sheriff and also became the Island's postmaster. In 1968, the shop was acquired by the Mackinac Island State Park Commission and moved next door to the Biddle House, where interpreters continue to use the tools and work the fire for the benefit of visitors.

Robert Benjamin was discouraged by his father from becoming a blacksmith.

"He said it was a dangerous job, dealing with horses, and he didn't want me working so hard like he had," said Mr. Benjamin. "He wanted to see me do something better with my life."

He discovered photography in 1941 while attending Petoskey High School and pursued his interest in film and photography at the New York Institute of Photography, which was across the street from the Empire State Building in New York.

"That was really fun because you were able to get into all kinds of events and places because we had a card that allowed us to go in to take photographs."

He then enrolled at Michigan State University to study engineering, but was interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Air Force. Serving 33 months overseas in the Philippines and Japan, he would often help provide movies for the troops on base. He also took official photographs while stationed in Mississippi and worked in a film development laboratory on base in Texas while stationed there.

Back home, he switched his major to art and elementary education and worked on the student newspaper, the State News. During summers, he worked with his uncle and photographer, John Foley, who had a portrait studio in Petoskey and relatives operating photography businesses on the Island.

Having the opportunity to work with both Mr. Wickman and Mr. Foley taught Mr. Benjamin a lot about photography.

"The one thing I learned most from the both of them is being meticulous," Mr. Benjamin said. "They were both meticulous workers and always worked to get the photograph exactly how they wanted it."

Mr. Benjamin earned a master's degree in art education at Wayne State University in Detroit and taught elementary art education at Farmington elementary schools for 36 years.

He has several published books about Mackinac Island history, his artwork, and his family history, and is expecting his latest book, "Mackinac Album," that includes a variety of photographs he has taken over the years, including yacht race photographs, to be released in July.

Robert and Beverly Benjamin have been married 53 years and have three children, Tom of Dearborn, Mike of Boston, and Jane Young of Petoskey.