Power, justice and (in)equality are central to Banning’s work. The social political environment is put at the fore and it often concerns subjects that have been neglected within the arts and are difficult to visualise: political systems; criminal justice; colonialism’s heritage; long-term consequences of war. Sometimes the work is the result of a sociological or anthropological classifying approach, such as ‘Bureaucratics’, a comparative study of the world of government officials in eight countries worldwide; or Law&Order, which compares criminal justice systems in Colombia, France, Uganda and the USA. Other times he focuses more on psychological impact that major social or individual events have had on individuals (‘Comfort Women’, ‘Traces of War’, ‘Down and Out in the South’, The Verdict).

His portraits are always respectful and warmhearted. But irony is also one of his weapons: e.g. in ‘Bureaucratics’; or in ‘The Sweating Subject’, a mocking take on colonial photography as well as on its heir, present-day western journalism. Or, in a more subtle way, in Red Utopia, about the remnants of communist parties in five countries.
His projects often have a personal point of departure, but are never ‘private’: he places the subjects that stem from his private life in a larger social context. To give an example: the history of Banning’s father and grandfather during WWII is not only limited to something biographical about two family members, but is broadened into a visual and textual research into the long-term influence of WWII experiences on European and Asian former forced labourers (in ‘Traces of War’).