Zak van Biljon is a landscape and fine art photographer, born in South Africa and now living in Switzerland.
He has honed his craft through formal education at the Cape Town School of Photography, where he focused on black and white printing, and the National College of Photography, where he graduated as the best student. He also took a course at the MOMA, further refining his skills and techniques in photography.
With a passion for capturing the beauty and power of nature through his lens, Zak’s work is characterized by a focus on the relationship between man and nature. He is known for his technical precision, and his ability to convey a sense of complexity and contradiction in his photographs. Zak’s use of infrared photography sets his work apart, allowing him to capture the energy of nature in unique and striking ways. His photographs are often described as visually stunning and aesthetically pleasing, showcasing his artistic ability and skill.
Zak van Biljon is a landscape and fine art photographer, born in South Africa and now living in Switzerland.
He has honed his craft through formal education at the Cape Town School of Photography, where he focused on black and white printing, and the National College of Photography, where he graduated as the best student. He also took a course at the MOMA, further refining his skills and techniques in photography.
With a passion for capturing the beauty and power of nature through his lens, Zak’s work is characterized by a focus on the relationship between man and nature. He is known for his technical precision, and his ability to convey a sense of complexity and contradiction in his photographs. Zak’s use of infrared photography sets his work apart, allowing him to capture the energy of nature in unique and striking ways. His photographs are often described as visually stunning and aesthetically pleasing, showcasing his artistic ability and skill.
Zak van Biljon (1981, South Africa) is a photographer who spent his childhood and teenage years between Johannesburg and Cape Town before settling in Switzerland. In 2003 he graduated at the top of his class from the National College of Photography in Pretoria, with a course of study centered on black and white printing, a choice he later described as ironic given how strongly the colours of the Rainbow Nation had shaped him. In 2004 he moved to Europe, encountering a different quality of light in Rome and, in London, rising to the top of the booking lists for well-known underground fashion labels. He went on to build his career as a commissioned and art photographer in Switzerland, devoting his free time to his own art projects.
His practice spans digital and analog photography, moving between contemporary advertising and fine art photography, with a central focus on the staged and directorial use of light. He is best known for his infrared landscapes, and has described colour as a language rather than simply light, one that rewrites how viewers connect with landscape. Working through an intensified, reddened palette, he renders the world through a prism that is at once real and aesthetically heightened, an approach he has aligned with Philip K. Dick’s dictum that reality is nothing but a viewpoint.
His recent solo exhibitions, all under the title MODERNISING NATURE, include presentations at Luisa Catucci Gallery (2023), Photo Münsingen (2023), Galerie Märtplatz (2023), GALERIE10 (2021), and GALERIE94 (2020), alongside group participation in MIA Fair at Superstudio Maxi (2023) and Photo Basel (2021).