Interview with Photographer Zanki | SHOT Magazine Issue 17

For Zanki, photography comes alive at the precise point where control meets the unexpected. Every photograph begins with a clear vision, yet finds its true strength in chaos, the energy of the set, and the human exchange that shapes the creative process. Light builds atmosphere, spontaneity disrupts perfection, and reality opens itself to imagination. In his work, what remains profoundly human is precisely this: the possibility for something unforeseen to emerge, shift the direction of the image, and transform it into something truly alive.

Photographer Zanki for SHOT Magazine Interview Issue 17

Shot Magazine Issue 17, titled 'Made By Humans', explores the value of human creation and what makes every creative process unique. In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and algorithms, how important is it for you that the creative process remains authentic and deeply human?

Even though the art world offers endless inspiration, I try to blend what's in my mind with the story I want to tell. It usually starts with a quick sketch; that's where the authenticity comes from, the human part of the process. From there, I make sure everyone involved in the project feels seen and valued, because that's what allows them to bring their own creativity into it too. For me, authenticity isn't just about the final image, it's about protecting that human exchange throughout the entire process.

Your images can appear constructed, yet they always retain a strong emotional tension. How important is it for you that, despite being carefully controlled, an image still preserves something alive and unpredictable?

I always leave room for some spontaneity. Even though I'd love to have everything under control, I've learned that there's more beauty in chaos than in perfection. I do what I feel in the moment; that's what keeps the image alive, even when it's carefully constructed. Control gives me the structure, but it's spontaneity that gives the image its tension and emotion.

In ‘A Glimpse of Madness’, the human figure seems to oscillate constantly between presence and dissolution, as if reality itself were losing its boundaries. What drew you to explore this subtle tension between what is real and what seems to slip away?

I think of art as one of two things: capturing reality or escaping from it. In "A Glimpse of Madness," I wanted both to exist at once. Some elements are built to feel 100% real. Then I added exaggerated, distorted touches on top; that contrast is what creates the "wow factor," and it's what makes the viewer question where reality ends.

Light, in your work, seems to go beyond simply illuminating a scene; it almost becomes a material that shapes bodies, volumes and perception. What role does light play in the way you construct your images?

Light is the most important part of my shoots. It sets the tone and mood we're trying to achieve. Before anything else falls into place, the light has to be right. It's not just about visibility, it's about atmosphere. The way I shape light is really the way I shape the emotion of the image.

What do you look for in a subject's face before deciding to photograph them?

Since I was obsessed with caricature art from an early age, I learned how to focus on the things that make someone different, the small details that set them apart. So when I'm photographing someone, I look for those distinctive features, and I try to highlight them rather than smooth them out.

Building a visual identity within an ever-evolving industry is not easy. Today, do you feel that you have found your visual language, or is there still something you feel you are searching for?

I would love to think that I've found my own visual language, but honestly, I'm still searching, not for a new style, but for the things that make my message clearer. I think that search never really ends; it's less about arriving somewhere and more about refining how honestly I can say what I mean.

Your images often exist in a space where reality feels subtly altered rather than simply documented. How important is it for you to leave room for ambiguity, allowing the viewer to complete the image with their own interpretation?

It's very important to me that the audience can feel the image in their own way. At the end of the day, it's art, and art loses something if it only allows one interpretation. I'd rather leave space for people to bring their own experience into it than tell them exactly what to see.

Looking ahead, is there a direction, theme or territory that you feel you have not fully explored yet?

Looking ahead, I'd love to explore blending conceptual shoots with an editorial touch even further. I feel like that could become my signature in the coming years: a space where storytelling and fashion sensibility meet, without one overpowering the other.

More interesting

Sara Punt

There is a moment when we stop looking at the body and begin to judge it. Sara Punt’s work begins from that fracture. Her images do not seek beauty, but another way of seeing: slower, more physical, more human. Through black, light, and abstraction, the body withdraws from the meanings imposed on it and returns to being a living form, a presence, a memory. Photography arrives at the end, as the trace of a process made of dialogue, vulnerability, and transformation. What remains is not a body to be interpreted, but something to be encountered again.

Ovidiu Oltean

In Ovidiu Oltean’s work, photography becomes presence, tension, and surface. His images do not seek polished beauty, but a more ambiguous intensity, made of grain, harsh contrasts, chromatic anomalies, and gestures that seem to hold something instinctive within them. Femininity appears magnetic, theatrical, sensual, never docile: it occupies space with force, between elegance and rebellion. Across faces, bodies, and atmospheres, a visual world emerges, moving through fashion, cinema, punk, and retro references without falling into nostalgia. Each image seems to shift between seduction and unease, control and impulse, transforming the subject into a living, restless presence that resists being reduced to a single definition.

Fabian Oefner

Some images document an instant. And then there are images that force us to question what truly makes an instant real. It is within this space that Fabian Oefner’s work unfolds. Through a continuous dialogue between art and science, he creates images that seem to document moments that actually happened, although they never truly existed. And yet nothing in his work comes from a shortcut. Each piece takes shape through research, experimentation, matter, and time, in a process that brings together scientific precision and human gesture. Rather than offering answers, Oefner continually questions the way we look, reminding us how thin the line can be between what we perceive and what we believe to be real.

Jago

Jago works within a material that allows no shortcuts. Marble imposes weight, duration, and resistance; it demands time, attention, effort, and the possibility of error. Faced with a block of marble that may require years, his gesture does not try to accelerate the process, but to inhabit it. For Jago, every stage of making already belongs to the work: the first mark, the first strike of the hammer, the form still in its embryonic state, the time needed for it to finally feel true to him. His sculpture emerges from an ancient language, made of bodies, curves, and presence, yet it is shaped by a radically contemporary awareness. It is not simply a matter of bringing marble to life or transforming matter into an image; it is about finding, through matter, a personal measure. The measure of time, of limit, of freedom, of form. Within this physical and mental space, thought acquires weight, identity asserts itself, and the process becomes a way of being in the world.

Carlos Teixeira

In Carlos Teixeira’s images, nothing seems left to chance. Before the shot, there is already a clear direction: a concept, a palette, a visual structure, an idea waiting to be made tangible. His editorials emerge from a process shaped by preparation, vision, and collaboration, where bodies, faces, and light are arranged within an image conceived with precision. His work speaks to the power of intention: imagining a photograph before it exists, then physically building it on set. Teixeira’s photography brings the value of human choice back to the centre: seeing, deciding, composing, giving form to a vision.

Fabienne Verdier

Fabienne Verdier does not paint forms. She paints forces. Gravity, weight, speed, resistance: every element enters the gesture and takes part in the birth of the work. Her monumental brushes, suspended in space, transform painting into a physical act, where the body does not simply control matter, but moves through it, guides it, and allows it to react. Each mark is born from a tension between intention and the unforeseen, between discipline and the loss of control. The result does not imitate nature: it uses its weight, its pull, its movement. In a time that seeks perfect, reproducible images, Verdier brings painting back to its most human point: an unrepeatable, living, necessary gesture.

Meghann Riepenhoff

In Meghann Riepenhoff’s work, the image is born from an encounter that can never be fully predicted. Light-sensitive paper comes into contact with water, wind, sunlight, sediment, frost, living matter, and retains what happens across its surface. There is no camera mediating the gaze, but a direct exposure to the world and its forces. Each work becomes the trace of an unstable relationship, where the artist’s gesture coexists with what escapes control. Light continues to act, time continues to transform, the landscape continues to leave its marks. In this physical and uncertain space, the image does not represent nature: it carries its movement, its pressure, its memory.

SHOT | Article Zanki

Zanki

What Escapes the Plan