AMSTERDAM.- Foam presents The edge of things, a major solo exhibition of the internationally renowned artist Nadav Kander. Over four decades, Kander has created some of the most celebrated images in contemporary photography, including portraits of Barack Obama, Rosamund Pike and David Lynch for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and TIME. Kander has exhibited widely at museums and institutions internationally, developing a body of work that moves fluidly across landscape, portraiture, still life and studies of the human form. The edge of things traces the threads that connect his work: a deep concern with the fragility of human existence, the passage of time, and the quiet intensity of everyday life. At a time of constant global change and endless distraction, Kander’s images invite reflection and contemplation, searching for moments of transcendence and asking what endures and what fades away.
From his award-winning photographs of the banks of China's Yangtze River to the shores of the River Thames and places such as Chernobyl, heavy with the weight of history, Kander’s photographs stand out for their ability to evoke both emotion and a sense of timelessness. Rather than simply documenting the world, his work evokes a shared human experience through a poetic and atmospheric visual language. His images often dwell at the margins – on the ‘edge of things’ – where certainty dissolves and ambiguity takes hold. Shadow, emptiness, and silence play as vital a role as his subjects, creating photographs that resonate on a profound level.
Renowned for his masterful use of light, Kander works with exceptional technical precision in both black-and-white and colour photography. Alongside photographs, the exhibition includes video work underscored by music composed by Max Richter and a projection with voiceover by the artist. Together, these works shift in tone from the sublime to the melancholic, from the epic to the intimate, revealing a visual language that moves between the eternal and ephemeral.
The exhibition is curated by guest curator David Campany, Creative Director of the International Center of Photography, New York. The international publication The edge of things accompanying this exhibition is published by Thames & Hudson.
Nadav Kander is a London-based photographer, artist and director, internationally acclaimed for his portraiture and large-format landscape photographs. He began taking photographs at the age of 13. Kander has received numerous awards and honours, including the Prix Pictet for his images of China’s Yangtze River (2009), an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society (2015), the Sony World Photography Organisation’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography (2019), and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2025). In 2009, shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama, Kander was commissioned by The New York Times Magazine to produce a landmark series of fifty-two portraits of members of the Obama administration — the largest number of portraits by a single photographer ever published in one issue of the magazine.
His work is held in major public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery in London; Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago; The Frank-Suss Collection, London, New York and Hong Kong. He has exhibited internationally at venues including Muse de L’Elyse in Lausanne, Switzerland; Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego; the Barbican Centre in London; Somerset House in London; Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Nadav Kander – The edge of things will be on view from 18 September to 31 January 2027 at Foam.
