Chasing the light
- Claire Inkson
- Oct 1, 2025
- 5 min read
At 43, Cristy Benson did what many dream of, but few have the courage to attempt.
She traded a stable career in agricultural data analytics for a Ford Ranger, a Jayco caravan, and a life on the road with her two dogs and a camera.
She has travelled the length of the country and is now in the South Island, through farm gates from Cheviot to the Ashburton Lakes and the Mackenzie Country.
What began as a side hustle has become a full-time career built around documenting New Zealand’s rural heart: the animals, the people, and the honest work that binds them.
“I fell in love with cows,” she says of her years at DairyNZ and AgResearch.
“I literally bought my first camera to take photos of forage varieties and high-performing cows staring straight down the barrel so I could use them science communications and reporting.”
Now, Benson captures every facet of the agricultural sector through her lens, selling those images to agribusinesses in a niche market with a gap waiting to be filled.
Financially, it’s growing- slowly.
She sold her Waikato home to kit out her rig and buy time to grow a client base. Commissions and print sales are climbing, and next she’ll attend the Rural Women NZ Activate programme in Dunedin to sharpen her business skills.
“It’s starting to pay. I didn’t factor in how slow network-building is,” she admits.
Life on the road
The challenges have been both logistical and emotional.
Benson had never towed a caravan before -or even slept in one -and the learning curve was steep.
“I wouldn’t even say it’s a curve. It’s a vertical line,” she laughs.
As a woman travelling alone, she says she feels safe 99% of the time, but her “antenna is always up,” and Starlink on the caravan keeps her connected with friends back home.
“I don’t get lonely. There’s community everywhere.”
Every day is different.
Benson says she never knows what kind of images she’ll get, only that the adventure keeps unfolding.
Benson is currently based in Kimbell, but it was Mid Canterbury that left a lasting impression.
One of her favourite images came while driving home from Lake Heron.
“As night fell, the shearers were driving out, and each car was kicking up dust in the dusk, with snowy mountains behind. It echoed the day’s shearing, it was special.”
The region’s topography and its people keep pulling her back.
Five and a half weeks at Tamar Farms in Mt Somers became a turning point.
“They trusted me right off the bat and opened the farm up,” she says. “I felt adopted, and I made very close friends with the staff.”
On Saturdays, she’d head to the Mount Somers pub, starting with a pie from the general store and ending up swapping numbers with a Lions Club member who knew who was doing firewood that week.
“It’s a wonderful way to crack the nut of a community,” she says. “The reception is so positive, they want to be part of this ridiculous adventure.”
Building trust
Benson knows that being invited onto a property is an act of trust.
Her background in “industry good” helps farmers relax.
“I say I used to work at DairyNZ and AgResearch, and now I travel the country as an agricultural photographer, and you see the shoulders drop.”
Her ability to speak the language of farming, paired with genuine enthusiasm for the sector, makes her welcome.
“I think farmers make the world go round,” she says.
Benson favours images that are gritty and raw: capturing farming in all its dirt and truth.
“I want natural movement, and scenes that reveal themselves: images you don’t even know to ask a photographer to get,” she says.
“I’m devoted. I’ve turned my life inside out to tell these stories. So many are down long gravel roads. It’s special to spend my life meeting people and uncovering what isn’t appreciated enough.”
That’s why she stays on-farm: for smoko banter and candid moments that happen only when people forget she’s holding a camera.
“I want images with emotional depth that really document the rhythms of farm life. “You’re only privy to them when you’re accepted as part of the team.”
Her two elderly terriers, Mr Cherub and Mr Truffles, help break the ice.
They ride in the back seat of the Ranger and travel wherever she goes - with farmers’ permission.
“Maybe it’s actually the dogs people want on farm,” she jokes. “I’m just the bloody photographer tagging along.”
Finding beauty everywhere
Next on her list is photographing braided rivers, though it’s animals - especially cattle -that Benson most loves to capture -inspiring her to name her business Sentient Imagery.
“Building a rapport with livestock and capturing what they’re feeling is what drives me. I long to bridge a connection between farm animals and people that may not see them the way I do, through photography.” Benson says.
Cows are naturally curious, making them perfect subjects.
“Cows like me,” she says. “If you’re sitting by a fence with a long lens, you usually have to wait for them to leave so you can get enough of a distance between you and the mob to be able to shoot them.”
Though life on the road takes her away from friends, photography itself is an anchor Benson says forces mindfulness in a culture where we’re too often glued to screens.
“I can see the beauty in everything,” she says.
And she means everything -even a heifer’s frozen cowpat with a sprig of clover pushing through the frost.
“It was beautiful.”
Benson is forever chasing the perfect light in an ever-changing landscape.
Fog that ruins a morning can become cinema by afternoon.
“What you perceive as a challenge is sometimes the best thing that could have happened,” she says, describing shafts of light cutting through haze above the Awatere.
“You come away doing cartwheels.”
Advice for others
Her advice for anyone tempted by life on the road? Give it a test drive first.
“Try long weekends and annual leave. It took me a few years of little tests before I finally got here. The key was knowing who I am. I know without a doubt this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
You can view Cristys work at www.sentientimagery.co.nz
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