Nadav Kander, selected portraits 1999-2011

Nadav Kander is a photographer who refuses to be limited by genre. Landscapes and cityscapes, portraits, nudes, advertisements: he shoots whatever he feels like shooting, and the result bears the traces of his singular, bewitching sense of atmosphere, regardless of subject. Kander is known for his series Yangtze, The Long River, which received the Prix Pictet, and for his portrait series Obama’s People in 2009. The Lowry in Manchester is presenting a selection of his work, Nadav Kander: Selected Portraits, 1999 – 2011. An interview with Kander appeared last April in The Observer soon after the show opened. “I like to create a void between myself and the person I’m photographing, where anything can happen,” Kander told Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery. “I remain quite empty, so that whatever happens at first happens with the camera trained on them”. Ironically, Kander’s employment of artificial effects of lighting, staging and style brings him closer to his subject. He adapts his own sensual aesthetic to the instinctive expression of his subject to produce portraits that are original, mysterious and captivating, but always powerfully authentic. “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.” Extended through January 29, 2012, there are only a few days left to experience this extraordinary retrospective. 
Based in London, Kander continues to work on portraits, landscapes and commissions and his work is part of some of the major collections in the world. Séverine Morel [email protected] Nadav Kander: Selected Portraits, 1999 – 2011 The Lowry Gallery Pier 8 Salford Quays M50 3AZ Tel. 0843 2086005 Open everyday 11am – 5pm (10am – 5pm on Saturdays)