Benjamin Von Wong is a conceptual photographer with a hyper-realistic visual style. Through a fusion of special effects and social themes, he drives conversations about the material world and our fixation with technology. Von Wong also formed part of our Wacom Creatives series, sharing insight on what drives him as a visual engineer. Now, he’s turning to the topic of conservation with a photo shoot centred around global electronic waste and the half-life of our computers.
Worryingly, less than 15 percent of the electronics and circuitry that we throw away each year is recycled into new products. The rest is simply dumped in landfill sites around the world, toxifying the Earth and surrounding nature. It is the photographer’s goal to point out that we have the wherewithal to change this wasteful trend of the manufacturing industries.
Von Wong puts humanity’s throw-away attitude toward technology under scrutiny in cyberpunk style, as each photograph features a human at the centre of the composition. The figure is caught in the middle of a tech-maelström by their own design.
Interestingly, the behind-the-scenes shots of Team Von Wong’s work are almost as impressive as the final photographs. They reveal the sheer scale of set design and the number of computers that were assembled for the project. Over 1800 kilograms of discarded keyboards, laptops and circuit boards were plucked from trash heaps to create these three dramatic scenes.
