Nadav Kander’s new trio of photographic works are elemental wonders of contemplation

Nadav Kander is a Kentish Town-based photographer who is well known for his moody, atmospheric photographs. Scratch that, he’s the man behind some of my most beloved photographs of artists, such as David Lynch, Adam Pearson, Benicio Del Toro and other magnetic subjects, in which his photographic eye for light and darkness pulls powerful auras from the celebrity faces we have seen thousands of times. But now, Nadav’s new exhibition brings together three bodies of work: Dark Line, Colour Fields, and Treow – but these are not straight forwardly his great portraits, which Nadav once said “capture more than likeness”, but these are emotive landscape photographs that transform how we see and feel landscape photography. “I do not see a big divide between a portrait and a landscape that shows human intervention and/or human history,” says Nadav. “There is a landscape in the portrait and a portrait in the landscape.”

This much is true within Nadav’s photographs of trees, which he commonly superimposes on top of his famous portraits. Treow, the newest set of photographs in this trio, means not only tree in Old English, but also trust and promise (giving new meaning to the phrase “as strong as oak”). “How perfect as I, for a long time, have been photographing trees or including them in my landscapes,” says Nadav. “I only found the dormant tree, the sleeping giants, the tree waiting for renewal profound to me. There is a strength to their endurance, their age and a solid patience to their waiting.” Within these photographs of towering trees, Nadav reveals a human element within their prowess – their wrinkles, their age, their unique shapes – these photographs humanise the unbreakable promise of their presence. After all, oak trees are close relatives to humans.

Nadav describes the images in Colour Fields as “manmade views, lit by manmade light.” Nadav is no stranger to light manipulation, but here, Nadav pursues stronger meaning in the use of artificial light, relating it to the Greek mythology of Nyx, a deity who is simultaneously the god and personification of the night. “It was quite a revelation to me and my heart skipped a beat when I read she was born out of chaos, which to me meant the chaos of day,” shares Nadav. “Simply put, daylight leaves little to the imagination as all is revealed – while night becomes quiet, serene, unnerving and unknowing.”

Dark Line features London’s Thames River, a rich source of metaphor for Nadav – the nature of the massive river represents “perpetual cycles of ending and renewal”. Fantastically rich in history, Nadav’s images capture artefacts of cultural data; the wars fought, voyages of discovery and generations of families living and dying. Although Nadav’s photographs may appear gloomy, there’s a deep love for life within them. In a previous film, Nadav lies in water that rises and engulfs him then after a few moments, lowers and reveals him once again. “The film further underpins the feeling of cycles and rhythms in the universe far bigger than the human race,” says Nadav. Remarking that the London river widens out and escapes into the ocean, as if “exhausted by its history after leaving London”, Nadav demonstrates in this new trio of works that photography can be elemental. Light, colour, wood, water – like Shan shui landscape paintings that depicted the smallness of man and the largeness of nature, Nadav pays respect to the world in their scroll-like essence.

Nadav Kander: After Dark is on at Flowers Gallery, London from 5 September – 11 October 2025.