Few are even aware of his real name, but the subversive artwork of the artist-blogger known as William Banzai7 isn’t afraid to take dead aim at the financial elite.
A former employee of the financial industry himself, Banzai7 says he became disillusioned with the industry after witnessing “the whole disaster progress literally in slow motion,” he explained to the The Huffington Post in a message. After a brief stint blogging, Banzai7’s unique brand of satirical collage featuring major financial and political players began appearing on Zero Hedge in 2010.
“I felt the need to hammer all the idiots that really polluted the finance industry and sullied the esteem of many honest people who have spent their lives operating in a professional and ethical manner,” Banzai7 wrote The Huffington Post, via Flickr, where he posts all of his work alongside his blog. “It sickened me.”
William Banzai7's work is influential enough to land him at number 10 on financial journalist Joshua Green’s list of the “The 25 Most Dangerous People in Financial Media.” Banzai7 distinguished himself from others on the list by using visuals instead of words, a technique that he writes “is more effective in terms of viewer resonance as well as retention.”
“Whether he's welding the heads of our most reckless bank CEOs onto the bodies of mythological villains or fusing the most despicable politicians into a Sergeant Pepper's album cover tableau, the man instinctively gets the concept of being both evocative and impactful with each new jpeg creation,” Green wrote.
Indeed, it’s perhaps Banzai7’s work itself that speaks loudest.
Check out Banzai7's work below:
