Hank Gans became a successful commercial photographer in 1975, working for high profile corporate clients such as A.T&T., Ciba Geigy, Kodak, Merrill Lynch, Johnson & Johnson, and Barclay's and First Union Banks . Over the years he has won many New York and Chicago Art Directors Club awards and his work has been featured several times in  PHOTOGRAPHIS, the Swiss annual of the "world's best advertising and editorial photography".

 

 

In the seventies and eighties Hank’s highly illustrative photographs graced album covers for such musical luminaries as Sarah Vaughn, Morgana King, Michel Legrand, and Grover Washington, Jr.

 

 

Encouraged by his mentor, the great color photographer, Ernst Haas, who had declared Hank’s personal work “perfection”, Hank left Manhattan in 1985 to photograph the American southwest. He lived with the Hopi Tribe at Keams Canyon, Arizona. Even though the Hopi had banned photography on the reservation since 1911, Hank chose this locality because the Hopi Mesas are the center of the Four Corners area which was the focal point of his photography. Hank became a member of the Hopi community, teaching photography at Northland Pioneer College on the reservation, restoring the mural at the Hopi Cultural Center on Second Mesa. Earning the trust of the tribe, Hank was also commissioned by Hopi tribal members to do their portraits.

 

  

After three years in the mile high desert, Hank left the Hopi mesas to settle in coastal Maine where he concentrated on fine art photography, publishing his large Maine Coastline Portfolio lithographs and having a one man show at the Union Hall Gallery at the Maine Photographic Workshops.

 

 

In 1993 Hank was the still photographer for a feature film being shot on location on Cape Cod. Solving a logistic problem for a producer brought about his becoming production manager of the feature and, eventually, one of its producers.  The film won several international film festivals in 1994. This led to additional production work for other films in Hollywood, California. Hank's total involvement in film production during this time drew him away from photography as a profession and an art.

 

 

In 2000 his love for still photography and marriage to his wife, Nicole, brought Hank back to the New York area where he reestablished himself as a commercial and fine art photographer and continues his exploration of the world through his color photography. He currently lives on the western shore of the Hudson River in Edgewater, New Jersey.

 

 

In 2005 Hank's photography was discovered by the Swiss publisher, Wizard & Genius who have published 28 of his images as high quality lithographs, distributed internationally through venues such as ART.COM and ALLPOSTERS.COM.

 

 

In 2007 Hank's work became part of the permanent collection of the musée de l'Elysée, the international museum of photography in Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

Hank currently teaches advanced photography and fine art digital printing at The Art School at Old Church in Demarest, New Jersey. He also conducts photographic workshops in Haverhill, New Hampshire and Spruce Head, Maine.