Ben Zank is an American photographer, born in New York 1991. He currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Zank is often the subject of his images and has been making photographs since he turned 18 after finding a small film camera, Pentax ME Super, in his grandmother’s attic. I really like Zank’s work and feel that his surrealist photographs are really intriguing and unique. Zank’s unique style really stood out to me and interests me a lot. I find many surrealist photographers use nature as part of their work and incorporate it in different ways, Zank does this but he also uses manmade objects such as roads, decks as well as focusing on the human body. His work often leaves out models faces and focuses on more on what they are doing as well as a sense of intrigue making his spectators want to find out who is being photographed and what they actually look like. I like this style and want to mould this into my own work. I love how strange his work is, it really embodies surrealism.

Ben Zank website: http://www.benzank.com

I really love Zank’s work and find it so interesting to look at as a spectator. His work gives me inspiration for my own work and to try and create photographs just as professional and unique as his are. Something that I did notice within many of his images is that he tends to have a lot of yellow in it. This colour is strong and vibrant and stands out against darker grey’s and black colours. I feel that Zank does this on purpose so that the spectator will be captivated by the yellow and it will capture their eye purely because yellow is so bright and a colour that not many people tend to use or wear. I think that as a surrealist photographer he fits right in as his work is unusual and strange. He often distorts peoples faces and leaves them out of the images bringing a sense of allure or wonder making the spectator want to look at more of his work to see if the subjects faces will be revealed.

Image Analysis

This is the first image of Zank’s that I found. I came across this image while searching for surrealist images and this one really stood out to me. I found it so strange and unique the way that the subject was lying on the road with his legs halfway up in the air with his face being covered by the yellow lines on the road. I really do love this image as it is so odd and not something that you would really expect to ever see. I really like the the subject and the main part of the image is on the bottom half of the image and in focus while the upper half of the image is blurred and dark. The yellow really stands out for me and draws my attention straight away. I then navigate over to the subjects legs and how he is strangely positioned on the floor and almost looks as though he has become part of the road as the spectator is unable to see his face from the yellow lines of the road covering it. I like the style of not being able to see the subjects face as I feel that it brings more to the image and allows the spectator to focus on what is going on around the subject and what the subject is doing rather than what the subject looks like. I also think that it makes the spectator want to look at more of his photographic work to see if they will eventually be able to see his face.

This image really stood out to me. It looks as though the subject is struggling to get out and is trying to escape from the rocks that are confining him. This could be symbolic of something in life that is putting pressure on him and making him feel trapped and like he cannot escape. I really like how the rock looks grey/blue it really brings the feel of it being cold with the subject not wearing any clothing showing bare flesh. I feel that the blue and white making the subjects skin tone stand out and really make the spectator focus in on the subject and the position that they are in. I think that the composition of this photograph is great too as there is an even amount on both sides of the rock with the subject being centred right in the middle of the image. This image is also square, which I have noticed in some younger surrealist photographers work. This square photograph reminds me of film cameras or even Instagram with having square boxes to fit your images into. The way the subjects hands are positioned and the way that they are sort of scrunched up makes me think that he is struggling to get out. His face is again covered by his arm in this image, which seems to be a theme in most of his images where you are unable to see his face or features.

I find using the ocean in surrealist photography work really interesting and so many surrealism photographers use this. It is strange that he is wearing a suit in the ocean, something you wouldn’t usually expect to ever see, which makes it all that more interesting and captivating. I want to find out more about the story behind the subject and why he is shoulder deep in water while wearing a suit. The ripples in the ocean look pretty and add to the calm atmosphere of the photograph. The lighting in the image and the environment is quite dull and isn’t really that interesting but the subject of the image really makes it more appealing to look at. It makes me wonder whether the subject has had a bad day or isn’t having the best life and wants to just stop and to let it take him over. Yet another part of me thinks that the possible stress that the subject is under has forced him just to dive into the ocean and take a minute to take it all in. There are endless scenarios that you could come up with as to why the subject is in the water and I like that as it is open to interpretation and to really capture its spectators attention making them want to find out more and look into the image deeper. The composition of this image also interests me as the subject is more in the bottom right hand side of the image rather than directly centred. This does make the image more interesting and gives the spectator more of the environment around the subject rather than solely focusing in on the subject themselves.