'Gestation'

When CoPA member Bill Zuback photographs his ideas he wants viewers to come away feeling satisfied but intellectually curious.

A case in point is Gestation, a series he created after a friend sent him eight plastic vending-machine babies encased in clear plastic capsules. The image of these creatures enclosed in womblike-bubbles may not be something everyone immediately relates to, but everyone has gone through ontogeny before entering the world.

“I'm more interested in creating abstract metaphors for everyday life experiences than photographing those same ideas found through a more social documentary style of image-making,” Bill said in an email interview.

Bill often uses dolls in his photography: “The fascination with the inanimate doll is that we all have experiences as children playing with dolls in some manner. Often using our own childhood experiences or societal observations to role-play a host of scenarios brings life to these inanimate beings.”

For Bill, Gestation taps into the emotions and connection to the creation of life. “It evokes emotions of fear, delight, and surprise, as well as, reflections of one’s past, present and future. The images balance between a sense of calm and anxiety while representing a slice of life in one’s family album. Gestation is about beginnings and the challenges of life from conception to death, however long that span may be.”

A recurring theme in Bill’s photography is the concept of family, with fruits and vegetables taking on the role of children and parents. The miniature furniture he adds to the scenes give a sense of familiarity Bill feels people can relate to while the “juxtaposition creates an air of mystery and restraint.” Bill says he wants his work to challenge the viewer’s “boundaries and experiences” of family life. His Short Stories, Dolls, and Life in Miniature series all deal with family.

“When I work within the realm of the institution of the family I am reminded that everyone comes to these life experiences differently. Families are filled with a sense of mystery for those on the outside. Secrets, perplexities, coherent, loyal and emotional are just a few adjectives that color peoples’ family experiences. It is these feelings and expressions of family that I have explored visually throughout the years offering many different interpretations as I would revisit familiar and similar themes.”

Other themes Bill explores are perceptions of beauty, the human condition and the relationship between words and images. The later relationship was the spur for Book Passages, a series he created in 2009 based on his visualization of phrases and sentences. The idea came to him while reading Paul Auster’s convergence novel Travels in the Scriptorium.

“I get a lot of inspiration from poems, songs and books,” Bill said, explaining his mental process:

“I wish I had some great process I could impart to others such as it begins with a sketch, etc. It rarely does for me, it begins in my head and stays in my head. Each concept for Book Passages started by reading the passage over and over. I would have it near me and read it before bed, during a commercial while watching television, while going to the bathroom.

“Ideas for all of my work begin to formulate in my mind and I play it over and over in my head until I know it like a well choreographed dance. It changes and is fine-tuned through this mental sketchbook. By the time it gets to the shooting stage I feel I have done it so many times in my mind already that it oftentimes flows like music and feels like a dance. Since this works for me, and it changes in little ways right up to the shoot, I feel that this process gives me great latitude for improvisation during the shoot because it feels so natural and free flowing. The intellectual part of planning, building and directing a shoot has developed out of many years as a commercial photographer.

“Many commercial shoots require the same criteria of hiring talent, building sets, choreographing all the elements to function as a whole and then it's show time. Nail the shot! It helps to be a very organized individual.”

Bill has an affinity for contemporary photographers Eliza French and Jeff Charbonneau, Maggie Taylor, and Robert and Shana Parke Harisson, as well as painters Mark Ryden, Tabitha Vevers and Alexander Timofeev. He’s also a longtime fan of photographer Cindy Sherman and surrealist photographer Hans Bellmer.

Bill graduated with a bachelor of art from Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1988. He manages a photography studio for a magazine publishing company.

To learn more about Bill’s work, visit his website at www.williamzuback.com.

– Dan Patrinos