Currently living in New York, Ben Zank (b.1991) is a photographer who revels in the unconscious condition. Utilising the stark semantics of straight lines, his characters nestle within the clutches of roads, pathways and desolate landscapes, transfixed by bodily limitation and immersive environments. Suburban areas are often used for the sets; playgrounds, basketball courts and sidewalks are re-created as strange and unfamiliar locations. Gravity and linear time are presented as fluid concepts through which angles can be redrawn and borders re-imagined as arenas of possibility. Each image offers a micro-universe to its viewers, allowing the featured figures to let go of their material existence momentarily. Every manmade structure – whether recreational or functional – is therefore harnessed to project the human persona, an intangible concept which, through a singular instance, comes to life through a curious investigation and reflective interpretation of surrounding topographies.
