About | Slideshow | Statements | Catalogue | Memories Benjamin Dudley Culp was born on September 30, 1948 in Charleston, S.C. He was the second son and fourth child of Francis Bartow and Agnes Browne Culp. He was educated in the Charleston school system, both public and private, and graduated from Charleston Preparatory School in 1967. Bennie, as he was known, spent two years at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. And then transferred to UNC-CH in the fall of 1969. In March of 1971 Bennie was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of MUSC in Charleston. For the next 10 years Bennie was to undergo many hospitalizations for the treatment of mental illness. Many of the photographs in the show were taken in that same ten year period when after yet another hospitalization Bennie was again trying to put his life back together. When I look at these photographs I see this wonderfully funny and sociable brother who connected to people! He was able to look so carefully at people, at places and at things that many of us so often dismiss and discount. Tragically, we were robbed of Bennie's future when he took his own life on January 16, 1979 after a prolonged period of depression. Hunter Culp Levinsohn April, 2016 TOP