Ben Zank --The Surrealist Artist in The Objective World

Julia Chen
Sep 26, 2019
2 min read

Updated: Nov 25, 2019

The 28-year-old cutting-edge photographer Ben Zank was born in the Bronx in New York, and his chances of becoming a photographer were completely unexpected. At the age of 18, he found a Pentax camera in his grandmother's attic, which became an opportunity for him to embark on photography. Since then, he has been fascinated with photography to record all the emotions that are difficult to express in words.

Ben Zank is good at creating mysterious and quirky images in a surreal way. Each photo is like telling his story, giving people a space of endless thinking. His works are exaggerated, intriguing, and meticulous in composition, often bringing people some unexpected visual impact.

The work that made Ben a hit is the Suit series. In this series of works, the protagonist is a group of men in suits and ties. They are silent, serious, obsessive-compulsive. And, always back to the camera or faceless. That was the first time that he hadn't not shown the face but only used the visually stunning pose to express his character. He believes that if emotions can transmitted without expressions,the image will be more powerful.

Three man in black suits — Suit Series by Ben Zank

In his works, people look really helpless: cover their heads with clothes, bury themselves in the bush, lying on the ground. Even the white-collar worker in the suit curled themselves up in the water pipe and the wall when unable to withstand the pressure. By every detail in the picture, Ben Zank expresses a feeling of loneliness, depression and desire to escape.

A man with his head in suit — Surrealistic style

Full of free and grotesque associations, his works always impress me a lot. Although these works are "documentary", they are derived from the photographer's brain with unlimited subjective imagination.