“There’s a thread you follow. It goes among/things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing./You have to explain about the thread.” from “The Way It Is” by William Stafford

An exhibition of photographs by the renowned London-based artist Nadav Kander will be on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery from April 21 through June 10, 2022. Nadav Kander: The Thread, the Prix Pictet-winning photographer’s first exhibition with Howard Greenberg Gallery, will present evocative landscapes and penetrating portraits from the 1990s-2020s that evoke the interconnectedness of humanity. The exhibition title, inspired by the poem “The Way It Is” by William Stafford, refers to this common thread.

“This connectivity is the only way we can come together as a species,” Kander noted. “My approach is to drill down to the essence of things, searching for feelings of vulnerability, quiet, and beauty, whether it be a familiar face or a riverscape.” Widely regarded as one of the most insightful photographers of our time, Kander’s work brings out the essence of his subjects in both subtle and powerful ways that resonate in the viewer’s mind.

For his landscapes, Kander has traveled extensively around the globe including the Yangtze River in China, the Artic Circle, the salt flats of Utah, and Chernobyl. Three works from Kander’s series Yangtze — The Long River, 2006-2007 will be on view. The project was awarded the prestigious Prix Pictet in 2009. For this body of work, Kander travelled the nearly 4,000-mile-long Yangtze River, from mouth to source, photographing the landscape and the people living along its shores. Yangtze — The Long River is a body of work that captures the dramatic effects of a nation at the precipice of enormous industrial and economic change and considers the history and folklore of the waterway that runs through the blood of the people.

Kander’s ongoing series Dark Line – The Thames Estuary, which he began in 2015, focuses on the River Thames where it connects with the sea. Kander captures atmospheric images of slow-moving dark waters and seemingly infinite horizons. Travelling to the estuary alone, engaging in the process of slow photography, he focuses on the cycles of the river, as well as its historical and mystical implications. The resulting images are deeply immersive and explore photography’s ability to encapsulate time and physical borders. By showing the Thames as sparse and monochromatic, with immeasurable distances disappearing into the fog, Kander found a marriage between subject, medium, and metaphor that intimately reflects his own inner experience.

Kander’s images of world leaders, authors, scientists, and actors exude an incisive and intimate essence. The exhibition will include more than of 30 of Kander’s portraits including HRH Prince Charles, David Lynch, Rosamond Pike, David Attenborough, and Barack Obama. These contemplative works transform familiar faces into uncanny depictions of human concern.

About Nadav Kander

Nadav Kander is an award-winning London-based photographer and director of short films who is best known for his portraits and landscapes. Born in Tel Aviv in 1961, he grew up in Johannesburg, where his family emigrated in 1964. At 13, he started taking pictures on a Pentax camera that he had bought with funds from his Bar Mitzvah. By the age of 17, he knew that he would be a photographer. He was drafted into the South African Air Force, where he worked for two years in the darkroom printing aerial photograph. In 1982, he left South Africa to begin his career in London.

Kander’s work began to get noticed and in the late 1990s, it was presented at Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif. In 2001, his photographs were exhibited at Michael Hoppen Gallery in London and in 2005, Palais de Tokyo in Paris mounted a solo exhibition.

In 2009, Kander had 52 full color portraits published in one issue of The New York Times Magazine. The portraits were of the people surrounding President Barack Obama including Vice President Joe Biden. It was the largest portfolio of work by the same photographer that The New York Times Magazine had showcased in one single issue.

Kander’s many awards include the Sony World Photography Award in 2019; Cannes Gold Lion in 2018; Honorary Fellowship, The Royal Photographic Society in 2015; World Press Photo Awards in 2014 and 2013; Prix Pictet in 2009; and International Photographer of the Year at the Lucie Awards in 2009.

Nine monographs have been published on the artist’s photographic work including The Meeting, Steidl, 2019; Dust, 2014, Hatje Cantz; Bodies. 6 Women, 1 Man, 2013, Hatje Cantz; Yangtze – The Long River, 2010, Hatje Cantz; and Beauty’s Nothing, 2001, Arena Editions. Kander’s work is held by a number of major institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, London; National Galleries of Scotland; Société Générale, Paris; Collezione di Fotografia di Roma, Italy; Art Gallery of NSW, Australia; and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.

About Howard Greenberg Gallery

Since its inception in New York 40 years ago, Howard Greenberg Gallery has built a vast and ever-changing collection of some of the most important photographs in the medium. The Gallery's collection acts as a living history of photography, offering genres and styles from Pictorialism to Modernism, in addition to contemporary photography and images conceived for industry, advertising, and fashion.

Formerly a photographer and founder of The Center for Photography in Woodstock in 1977, Howard Greenberg has been one of a small group of gallerists, curators and historians responsible for the creation and development of the modern market for photography. Howard Greenberg Gallery—founded in 1981 and originally known as Photofind—was the first to consistently exhibit photojournalism and street photography, now accepted as important components of photographic art.

The Gallery is located at two 57th Street locations: an exhibition space on the 8th floor of the Fuller Building at 41 East 57th Street; and an entire floor at 32 East 57th Street, directly across from the Fuller Building, to house, manage and present its vast archive of over 40,000 prints.

For more information, contact 212-334-0010, info@howardgreenberg.com or visit www.howardgreenberg.com.

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Images left to right:

Yibin VIII, (Bathers), Sichuan Province, 2007 from the series Yangtze – The Long River, 2007. Chromogenic print; printed 2022. Image size: 38 x 48 3/8 inches. Paper size: 48 1/4 x 58 3/4 inches

Water XVIII, (Shoeburyness towards Mulberry Defences and onto Grain Power Station), England, from the series, Dark Line - The Thames Estuary, 2015. Archival pigment print. Image size: 39 3/8 x 17 3/4 inches. Paper size: 44 x 19 5/8 inches

Rosamund Pike II, Los Angeles, USA, 2014. Pigment print; printed 2022. Image size: 26 x 22 inches. Paper size: 26 x 22 inches.