About the Photographer

Photo of Wilfredo Benitez-Rivera

Wilfredo Benitez-Rivera is a parish priest. He is the current rector of St. Anselm of Canterbury Episcopal (Anglican) Church, in Garden Grove, California. He is actively involved in interfaith peace and justice work. Prior to ordination to the priesthood in 1991, Wilfredo was engaged in a career involving counseling and community organizing, in the city of New York.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Sociology from the Universidad InterAmericana de Puerto Rico; a Master of Science in Education degree with a concentration in Cross-Cultural Counseling from the Bank Street College of Education, in New York City; and a Master of Divinity degree from the General Theological Seminary, also in New York City.

At age 16, in 1972 Wilfredo took a photography course at the old New York Institute of Photography. During the early 80’s he studied privately under the tutelage of Puerto Rican photographer Nestor Cortijo. Since then he has been mostly self taught. His revived passion for photography has reawakened with a vengeance in the last five years, following a divorce. Photography has become for Wilfredo a means of seeing beyond seeing, a journey of revelation beyond the ordinary and the mundane, an exploration of the power of life in all its beautiful and chaotic manifestations.