Nadav Kander [Photographe]

Nadav Kander (né en décembre 1961 à Tel Aviv, Israël) est un photographe vivant et travaillant en Grande-Bretagne.
Né en Israël, il a grandi en Afrique du Sud. Dans les années 1980, il s'établit à Londres où il vit avec sa femme et ses trois enfants. Il a été récompensé en 2002 par l'Award Terence Donovan de la Royal Photographic Society. Il est également le vainqueur du prix Pictet 2009 dédié au développement durable.
Source : Wikipedia

son site

Série Yangtze, the long river

Série God’s Country

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Nadav Kander began a three year survey of secret Soviet scientific cities and missile test sites when he learned of the existence of two “closed” cities on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia that tickled his curiosity for secrecy and his interest in the aesthetics of destruction. This fascination then took him from East Kazakhstan to the desolated landscapes of the Aral Sea. The restricted military zones of Priozersk and Kurtchatov did not appear on any map until well after the end of the Cold War. Long-distance missiles were tested in Priozersk, only known at the time as “Moscow 10”, under great secrecy. Hundreds of atomic bombs were detonated in the so-called “Polygon” near Kurchatov until the program ended in 1989. The bombs were exploded in a remote but still populated area, and covert studies were made of the effects of the radiation on the unsuspecting inhabitants. He was then drawn to the bleak Aral Sea where there had been a military presence in the area, which had been responsible for launching the missiles used in the development of the defence systems in Moscow 10. Through this new series of fascinating pictures, Kander continues his exploration of the darker side of our nature, of mankind. He writes how the ticking of the Geiger counter on his belt while he photographed reminded him that he should not become too enthralled with the aesthetic and painterly allure of the crumbling ruins. As Will Self writes about Kander’s pictures in his introduction to the book, “these images do not make beautiful what is not, they ask of us that we repurpose ourselves to accept a new order of both the beautiful and the real.”

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