Born in 1976, Benjamin König has been enamored with drawing and painting since his earliest years, when countless beautifully and creepily illustrated children’s books led a trail of breadcrumbs to his passion. Despite attempting several other professions (audio engineer, conservator, etc.), Benjamin always returned to his first love: drawing. He is now a freelance illustrator in Upper Bavaria, near Munich.
Most of my work is quite conceptual in the way that I usually have a pretty good idea of what the final image should look like before shooting relevant elements. While shooting my elements, I do always keep processing options in the back of my mind, so realistically photography and manipulation/processing are not only of equal importance to me, but definitely help define one another.
Socially, I’m not always allowed to doubt or question other people’s idea of happiness, beauty, and normality—not without risk of alienating them—but through my art it’s possible for me to criticize, violate, and expose those things. It’s a way for me to communicate my emotions and thoughts without forcing anything upon anyone.
I don’t think there is a prevailing “Argentinian attitude” toward horror in art. I know some who are drawn to it (like me), some who are indifferent to it, some who are repulsed by it. At least that’s all I can tell you based on my personal experience. In Argentina there are exceptional artists whose work is based in horror and they’ve earned public acceptance.
I discovered photography when I was around fourteen. I used a throw-away camera first and discovered that my mother had a very simple digital camera. From then on I saved my money to purchase my own Canon. My dad gave me his old Canon F-1 film camera and, ever since, photography has grown into my primary artistic passion.
I’d like to hope that my work represents a sort of honesty. I feel as if we are all different types of witches, and for artists their spell-craft is obviously their artwork. So that’s what I’m trying to bring about; an inborn, quasi-dormant thaumaturgy. Thematically I’m drawn to topics that are seemingly unsettling; topics that have a lot of dimension and are not perceptibly moral or amoral. I think when I think about my interests in those terms, I want to explore more of the unspoken side to the human experience: psychological trauma, sexual perversion, the occult, and deep spiritual conditioning.
I do like to draw a variety of subjects, but I’m not really sure why I favor drawing dark things. I don’t really like to get introspective about it because I might just conclude that I’m actually psychotic.
It’s difficult to explain why I’m attracted to things that are aesthetically on the darker or more somber and atmospheric side. I think it’s because I like to see things that have a little bit of mystery to them. I think sometimes it is difficult to separate mystery from fear or horror.
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