Nadav Kander

Nadav Kander Born Tel Aviv, Israel in December 1961- Present
 Nadav Kander was first introduced to the potentials of photography at the age of 10 when his father once bought an Iconoflex on a flight to New York, Kander's father would film every holiday they attended and once returned home they would be treated to a slide show, which Kander remembers the joys it brought.
 Being a white citizen in South Africa meant Kander was forced into partaking in National Service, it was after joining the Air Force and being placed into the dark room for two years and printing aerial photos he wanted to become a photographer. Today Nadav is an Award Winning Photographer and internationally acclaimed, this is down to his sharp detail, strong compositions and edgy imagery. Landscape and portrait photography is what he is best known for but I personally love his portrait work because of how individual and varied every photo is and how he can bring out each persons personality and character just threw a photo creating a sense of connection between the audience and the image. 

When I was first introduced to Nadav Kander I took a great interest to his portrait work especially the imagery using coloured gels, I had not seen anything like it before and was quite captivated by the style and the outcomes so I was then motivated to recreate this style of photography in my own work using similar techniques. I found it fascinating being able to project splashes of colours onto the sitter making the images different and fun. I discovered that when I used two or more coloured gels in photography I was able to create photos that would either be contrasting or complimentary, this was a nice way to bring out peoples personalities using colour for example using yellow and red colours to show a fiery character, photography is all about the visual appearance and how to express a person threw this.

Researching more on Nadav Kander opened my eyes a lot more to the photography world and the diverse styles and techniques used. Another of my personal likings are the Obama images I hadn’t really seen such detailed and emphasized photographs as them, they have such strong contrasting appearance and its this that I find inspiring. When looking closely at the images I find it amazing how these photos can express such a quality and professionalism, I firstly mistaken these images as realistic oil paintings because of the texture and nature of the photos and I hope to one day be able to produce photographs at such a high standard as Nadav Kander.

This photo of Tinie Tempah is quite a clean and simple one but by using a prop it has that comical side to it because it shows the face expression of Tinie Tempah’s just before the prop is about to hit him in the face, It is quite a clever image and a different way to bring out how he is feeling and another side a portrait photography. Kander has been a big influence in how I see the diverse sides of portrait photography and I will look over his work if I ever need inspiration in the future.