“SOLITUDE – QUIETITUDE – CONTEMPLATION” BY NAVAV KANDER : A REVIEW BY OLIVIA MARCHESE

Nadav Kander is an award-winning photographer, well known for his portraiture of various well-known faces; as well as his minimalist landscape photography. I am focusing upon this series of landscape photographs as I admire the message he depicts through his form of art.

The images show a lone figure, separated from any surroundings. Some of his images suggest that this character is upon another planet, further exaggerating the message of seclusion from reality.

The composition of Kander’s photographs are very minimalistic. The title of this series really demonstrates what the series is trying to portray; feelings of isolation (‘solitude’) that were brought upon an individual during this global pandemic.

Kander has wisely and notably made the figures in the images very small in scale, in comparison to his surroundings. This is perhaps to reflect upon the insignificance and loneliness he was feeling as he created the series. The figure is often photographed to be either facing away from the camera or with its head looking towards the ground, as if to be deep in thought. This reflects the ‘contemplation’ that comes with being alone with one’s thoughts when in silence.

Nadav Kander was inspired by the recent effects of the Coronavirus to produce these images.

“At the point this lockdown began, I was no stranger to solitude and the effect it has on me and my practice as an artist. When we separated ourselves, I was very aware of the feelings that arose in me from the forced distancing and shocked at how quickly my surroundings, which were until that moment a safe place, became quickly alienating and unsafe to me. Another human being becoming a threat, an enemy, a carrier of a deadly disease. I began thinking about the importance of touch to non-verbal communication and how the lack of it would produce a yearning for connection.” Nadav Kander

The reason I have selected this series is due to the connection I feel to the events Kander inspired it upon; just as any person who is living through this pandemic will feel.

I very much respect Kander’s creativity upon creating this series, as they can evoke a connection upon any human who has been through a difficult time and the loneliness that comes along with this, not just throughout the Coronavirus pandemic but within their everyday lives. I believe this is an emotion that everyone will experience during a stage of their lifetime.