14 November 2019 – 2 February 2020

Willy Brandt Haus
Wilhelmstraße 140
Berlin, 10963
Germany
willy-brandt-haus.de

From his award-winning series Yangtze – The Long River to his intimate portraits and nudes, Nadav Kander’s photographic work has been described as both beautiful and uneasy, alluding to the quiet and emotive aspects of human experience and hidden truths beneath the surface.
As one of the most acclaimed and influential artists working today, Nadav Kander is known for his personal and intuitive modes of image-making. His photographs emphasise the importance of contemplation, inviting the viewer to pause and pay attention to the fundamental issues of today – from globalisation, industrial decline and climate catastrophe, to the inevitable vulnerability of the human body.

Throughout his life, Nadav Kander has accumulated a parallel body of portrait photographs. Transforming the familiar into the uncanny, Kander has created images of extraordinary beauty and poignant human concern.

Kander’s characteristically minimal approach reflects his interest as an artist in shared universal experience, moving beyond the specificity of public persona or status. His enigmatic depictions of actors, artists, authors, sports icons and state leaders combine rawness and sensuality, power and delicacy, revealing his subjects as though caught in a moment of reverie or vulnerability.

“I don’t photograph to tell stories. I photograph to make stories.The viewer, if they hold their gaze long enough, becomes the author of the work’s meaning.”

“A portrait is one way of looking at some facets of our condition. There’s a precious and beautiful flicker of understanding, or the opposite, that shows itself for short periods and disappears.”

“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