In the timeline of an artist’s career, certain moments serve as public markers of creative evolution. For French fine art photographer Zack Zublena, a 2019 interview represents a significant early record of his developing artistic voice in Los Angeles. Published on August 19, 2019, the article “Meet Zack Zublena” in VoyageLA captured the origin story of his Gold Shoot, a photographic concept that would come to define a major part of his practice. The interview provides a valuable historical account, documenting the transition from commercial work to a deeply personal fine art exploration that would later find its place in professional interiors worldwide.
The article serves as a reference point, chronicling the specific ideas and techniques that formed the foundation of his signature style. It details the conceptual shift that occurred after a transformative trip abroad and explains the practical steps he took in his Los Angeles studio to bring a unique vision to life. For collectors, interior designers, and art historians, the VoyageLA piece offers insight into the authentic genesis of an artistic language that continues to evolve.
Every artistic journey has a point of ignition. As documented in the 2019 interview, Zack Zublena’s dedicated interest in photography was kindled not in a bustling city but in the vast landscapes of South Africa. A safari in Kruger National Park became a formative moment in Zack’s relationship with photography, awakening a deeper interest in capturing the world through the lens. After returning to Los Angeles, he began photographing headshots and fashion before gradually moving toward fine art. This experience planted the seed for a new creative direction, one that sought to capture an essence rather than just an image.
As his practice evolved, Zack gradually moved beyond headshots and fashion toward fine art photography. Inside his home studio, he developed the gold body painting approach and created the gold-leaf wall that became the backdrop for some of his earliest Gold Shoot photographs. The traditional craft and material history of gold-leaf gilding is extensively documented by the Getty Conservation Institute. This period marked a crucial phase of experimentation, during which Zack refined his technical skills while cultivating a distinct thematic focus that would set his work apart.
The transition from concept to creation took place within the walls of his Los Angeles studio. It was here that Zack synthesized his inspirations into a tangible process. This evolution led to the Gold Shoot: Zack created a gold-leaf wall inside his Los Angeles home studio and began painting his models with reflective gold-colored body paint before photographing them. The resulting photographs explored the relationship between the human form, light, and gold as a visual symbol.
Within Zack’s artistic philosophy, this process was more than a technical exercise. The work explores inner light, identity, and transformation. Gold functions as a visual and symbolic language, used in his work to represent purity, divinity, and the intangible essence of the soul. The imagery is intended to invite contemplation on these themes, using the interplay of reflective surfaces, shadow, and the human figure to create a sense of depth and meaning.
Gold also carries a long history of symbolic and sacred associations in art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s study of gold in Ancient Egypt, for example, documents the material’s important relationship with religious, royal, and funerary imagery. Within Zack’s contemporary practice, however, these historical associations are reinterpreted through photography, reflective gold-colored body paint, light, and the human form.
The VoyageLA interview provides an early public record of the spiritual and artistic ideas Zack associated with this developing body of work.
An artist’s early work often finds unexpected pathways into the world, and the Gold Shoot was no exception. The commercial potential of the work appeared almost immediately. As Zack explained in the 2019 VoyageLA interview, his very first Gold Shoot attracted the attention of an interior designer remodeling a wine cellar in Beverly Hills. One of the photographs was produced at 46 × 72 inches, museum-framed, and installed in the completed interior—an early milestone in the professional presentation of his fine art photography.
This placement was a pivotal moment, demonstrating that the deeply personal and symbolic nature of his fine art photography could resonate within the context of high-end interior design. It affirmed that the aesthetic language he was developing had a place in curated spaces, bridging the gap between private artistic exploration and public appreciation. The installation also demonstrated, at an early stage in Zack’s fine art practice, how his large-format photography could become part of the visual identity of a sophisticated interior. You can explore a retrospective of this early project in the article Zack Zublena Fine Art Photography at The Cellar Beverly Hills.
The foundational concepts captured in the 2019 interview did not remain static. The early experiments with gold-colored paint and a gold-leaf backdrop evolved into a mature and distinctive artistic language. The core themes of inner light, transformation, and sacred symbolism have been refined and expanded across multiple series, forming the basis of what are now known as his Signature Collections.
This visual language has proven especially relevant for architects, interior designers, and art procurement teams seeking to create distinctive atmospheric identities. The work’s blend of classical form and contemporary execution allows it to complement a wide range of professional environments, from luxury hospitality and wellness spaces to sophisticated residential projects. The focus on universal themes, expressed through a refined and elegant aesthetic, offers designers artwork capable of contributing to spaces that feel both modern and timeless. The journey from a home studio experiment to a comprehensive artistic practice is further detailed on the artist’s About page.
The trajectory of an artist’s career can be measured in part by the growing reach of the work. Years after the initial Gold Shoot experiments in his Los Angeles studio, Zack Zublena’s artistic vision achieved significant international presence. Zack Zublena’s fine art photography has since been installed as part of the interior decoration of more than 120 David Lloyd Clubs across the United Kingdom and continental Europe.
The presence of Zack’s photography across more than 120 David Lloyd Clubs represents an important chapter in the international development of his work. Its integration across multiple locations demonstrates how a consistent fine art identity can be incorporated into contemporary fitness, wellness, and leisure environments while retaining the distinctive visual language of the original photographs. Further details on this major project can be found in the article How Zack Zublena's Artwork Decorated More Than 120 David Lloyd Clubs.
Today, the artistic language documented by Voyage LA in 2019 continues through Zack Zublena’s fine art photography and his Gold Body Painting and Fine Art Photography Experience. Participants are covered in reflective gold-colored body paint and photographed by Zack, extending the visual exploration of the human form, light, identity, and transformation that began with the early Gold Shoot. This artistic language can also be seen across collections including Golden Souls and the Holy Collection, each exploring different dimensions of spirituality, identity, and form.
The collections now offer a wide range of options for collectors and professional designers, from fine art prints to bespoke commissions for large-scale projects. The work continues to introduce a sense of sophisticated tranquility and symbolic depth into interior spaces. What began as a personal exploration in a Los Angeles studio has developed into a distinctive visual language within Zack Zublena’s fine art photography.
From the early record provided by his 2019 VoyageLA interview to large-scale installations across Europe, Zack Zublena’s career demonstrates a consistent and evolving artistic vision. His fine art photography continues to bring its distinctive exploration of gold, light, and the human form into private collections and contemporary interiors across the wellness, leisure, hospitality, and residential sectors.
Interior designers, architects, collectors, and art procurement professionals are invited to explore the full range of Signature Collections to discover artwork for their projects. For inquiries regarding bespoke commissions, multi-location installations, or curated art selections, please contact the gallery directly through the official contact page.
