LONDON.- Nadav Kander is one of the most influential photographers in the world. Awarded the Prix Pictet in 2009 for his series Yangtze - The Long River, Kander is an artist for whom the medium allows access beyond the surface, revealing the humanity of the world and its inhabitants.
Kander’s extraordinary gift is the ability to see beneath his subject and in doing so he has produced some of the finest photographic work in the world demanding we see more than simply beautiful or interesting subjects, instead revealing compassion and humanity. Kander refers to this approach as The Triangle and asks us to view his images as we would appreciate poetry, bringing our own interpretation and imagination to see what he sees.
Kander's capacity to transform human encounters into outstanding portraits is showcased for the first time in The Meeting. A unique testament to the diversity and nuance of this extraordinary photographer’s work its images are layered and penetrating, revealing unexpected moments of reverie and vulnerability, inviting us into Kander's innate ability to access the complex sense of self that otherwise lays hidden.
“A picture needs to strike a certain tempo to work for me. It needs to hint at something more you might struggle to make out or understand. Similar to only just being able to see something in dark water, revealing just a little and leaving the viewer frustrated, with no option but to look deeper and into themselves.” Nadav Kander
Spanning thirty years and including over 200 riveting images, this is the first volume dedicated to Kander’s portraiture and shows the incredible range of his work. Kander’s subjects are never predictable, as likely to be everyday encounters with regular people, Kander’s own family, world famous artists, musicians, authors, sports icons, political leaders and even a self-portrait of the artist in his 20s.
The Meeting features text by Ian McEwan, words by David Lynch, accompanying commentary by Kander and a conversation between Kander and David Campany.
“Our stories collide and change, depending on the day, the weather, our emotional states." Nadav Kander
Subjects include Barack Obama, the artist’s children, Donald Trump, HRH Prince Charles, Desmond Tutu, Henry Kissinger, Kanye West, Sir David Attenborough, Salman Rushdie, Thom Yorke, Brad Pitt, Sir Norman Foster, Ronaldinho and Kander’s mother standing on her chosen burial plot. Highlights also include Kander’s series on Walthamstow market traders and his 1991 portraits of South African children in colonial school uniform in shots such as Schoolgirl (white photographer). “She looks back at me, a white photographer. Years later, now I look back, and see in her face what I once thought naively was mistrust, as disgust.”
The Meeting will be published by Steidl in December 2019. An exhibition of photographic portraits by Nadav Kander is on view at Flowers Gallery, London W1 until 21 December.
A series of book signings are planned including Flowers Gallery, Cork Street on 11th December and an Artist talk at the National Portrait Gallery Ondaatje Wong Theatre on 14th February 2020. An accompanying exhibition will take place at Willy-Brandt-Hause, Berlin from 14 November 2019 to 2 February 2020.
"To present people exactly how they are, or want to be, is a waste of time. Just showing positive, expected images of beauty and airbrushing away the conditions that make us human seems like deception to me.” Nadav Kander
British artist born in 1961, Nadav Kander was raised in South Africa and lives and works in London. His work is held in collections including the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; and the Statoil Collection, Norway. His exhibitions include those at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; the Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne; and Somerset House, London.
