« Revealed yet concealed. Shameless yet shameful. Ease and unease. Beauty and destruction. These paradoxes are displayed in all my work; an inquiry into what it feels like to be human. Wherever I may be, my pictures seek to expose the shadow and vulnerability that exists in all of us, and it is this vulnerability that I find so beautiful. » – Nadav Kander
FLOWERS Gallery presents BODIES. 6 Women, 1 Man. Coated in white marble dust and set in the void of the photographer’s studio, the subjects of Nadav Kander’s BODIES. 6 Women, 1 Man serve as monumental studies of the human condition. Far from the airbrushed perfection that permeates images of nudity in popular culture, Nadav Kander presents us with honest photographs of the human form. The ‘bodies’ featured reference the forms of the classical and renaissance past, whilst modernising the genre of the nude to act as a tool for philosophical investigation. Faces turned from the viewer, but bodies offered completely, the forms invite the meditation and self-reflection customarily associated with religious iconography and tomb sculpture. BODIES. 6 Women, 1 Man develops the exploration of the human condition established by Kander in earlier work such as Yangtze – The Long River. Whether photographing the consequences of the incomprehensible development in modern-day China, or a white painted nude suspended against the darkness of his studio, his photographs are linked by their ‘compassionate ruthlessness’, and by the constant strive to explore the poeticism of life’s idiosyncrasies.
Nadav Kander (b. 1961) is best known for Yangtze – The Long River, for which he earned the prestigious Prix Pictet award in 2009. Other series include Obama’s People, a 52 portrait series commissioned by the New York Times magazine, and his recent portraits for the National Portrait Gallery exhibition Road to 2012. Kander’s work is included in several public collections, and he has exhibited internationally at venues including Musee de L’Elysee, Lausanne, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne, Kennedy’s Museum, Berlin, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, Palais de Tokyo, Paris and Herzilya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel.
EXHIBITION
10 January – 9 February, 2013
FLOWERS GALLERY
21 Cork Street
London W1S 3LZ
UK
Mon – Fri: 10am – 6pm
Sat: 10am – 2pm
www.flowersgallery.com
BOOK
Nadav Kander, BODIES, 6 Women, 1 Man
Published by Hatje Cantz
Graphic design by Tappin Gofton Ltd
English; 2013. ca. 104 pp., c. 30 color ills, 38 x 28 cm; clothbound
ISBN 978-3-7757-3449-3
GALLERIES
London : FLOWERS GALLERIES – www.flowersgallery.com
Berlin : CAMERA WORK AG – www.camerawork.de
Shanghai : M97 GALLERY – www.m97gallery.com
Zurich : EDWYNN HOUK GALLERY – www.houkgallery.com
