1. Nadav Kandar present
Chosen: current photographer, what I am presenting is
- not my critique of his pho
- own evaluation of his influences, ways of working and what he is trying to achieve.

2. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1961 Grew up in South Africa
Living in London since 1982
Influences
Edward Weston
Constructivism
Breadth of work
Advertising and Editorial
Landscapes and Portraits
Schooling was a total failure for me
No TV, No internet, a few books – what you saw you really delved into – whether a cloud, a nude or a rusty car, photography – such a tight expression of who he was
Edward Weston - breadth of work – A very strong strand of me
Constructivism – abstract ( seen mainly in advertising campaign work) eg
Angles, contrasts and abstract use of light 20’s and 30’s abstract strong use of geometrics and bold colours – emphasis on lines and composition

3. What makes a portrait a portrait?
Intention
Whether it’s the sitter or the person behind the brush or lens, one or the other has an intention to make more than a likeness
Not every picture of a person is a portrait

5. Relationship with the sitter
Meets the sitter when they stand up or sit down in front of the camera
The connection that human beings have when there is not much knowledge
Tension and heightened moments – communication without words
Slowly people become themselves
Find it hard to photograph a friend or someone he knew well. Tends not to chat or talk a lot. Collaborates more with actors
Not looking to reveal some truth about them
Generally, I don’t spend that long. It could be 10 or 15 minutes with a person. Sometimes longer, but not much longer: 20 minutes, half an hour. Once a person settles down and becomes comfortable, it’s almost too comfortable. So the first 10 minutes are incredibly important, which is why I try to get my lighting right from the go.

6. Subject’s self representation
‘Kander, like Roland Barthes, believes that photographic portraiture is defined by a subject's self-representation; by the gaps between who an individual thinks he is and how he wishes others to see him.’
Obama's people: portraits by photographer Nadav Kander, Elizabeth Day

7. Thinking about the viewer
Thinking about the viewer even more than the sitter - it’s about the viewer reacting to the image
Triangular relationship of the sitter the viewer and the artist. It’s often as much about him.

8. Lighting
Chooses a lighting scheme that he thinks is appropriate but often wrong, changes it as he reacts to who a person is or how they are
Uses light to reveal, or the opposite of reveal, how the subject is feeling or he is feeling
Coloured gels add another layer to the viewer’s experience
3 hours preparing lighting

9. Contrasty, slightly revealing, shrouding showing shadow
Contrasty, slightly revealing, shrouding showing shadow. Shadows on the face (common theme- musch nicer than a highly lit face’
Modern but really rooted in photography. Back and White – influence of Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany

10. Michael Fassbendar

11. Use of gels

15. Pushing light through Boris’ trademark hair
sensitive and contemplative
I thought a blonde halo was a good starting point if it remained really subtle and respectful. Being too obvious always looks immature
I don’t always like the sitter to get too comfortable. I don’t generally speak very much when I’m photographing other than to direct. Other photographers like to show their subject as relaxed and happy, but for me, the myriad other states of being we experience are equally truthful. More importantly, they are common to us all and infinitely recognisable.

16. Difference of working with politician versus actors – cerebral versus feelings and emotions
Working with politicians is entirely different. It’s only entirely different in how I am and how I get to the place I need to go, but I will have to talk to a politician in a much more cerebral way. I’ll be discussing where they might look and how it was to be at a certain state of their career, maybe. I might ask them to look left, or I might have noticed that they had their hands in their pockets when they walked in and so I ask them if they want to put their hands back in their pockets. I want to slowly make them feel like themselves. I’m not particularly trying to relax them, I just want to make a point where a viewer will look at it and see something interesting.

18. LEAVE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN UNSEEN
Blurred for me is not so much that the picture is actually blurred, it’s that there’s a lot unseen. I think blurred is the same as putting a shadow over a face. When you don’t quite see what it is, it alludes to a shadow, to one’s own shadow, the parts we’re not sure about, and of course that’s much more alluring than the opposite. That’s why I blur things, and I would do it more if people didn’t need things to look so recognizable.
I’ve always thought that to shroud or obscure or shadow a face—all these things are far more alluring than an over-lit face. It’s so much interesting to find out things than to just be presented with everything. I think you know that in many parts of life. You can tell more, and read so much more into a picture, if very little is given to you. A great example is Rothko. In his paintings—which are just dark red against even darker red—you’re almost being told nothing, and yet you feel something. You feel a heavy composition, a heavy weight, and it moves you. When you go to a great piece of theatre, what you respond to most is a feeling. If I do it all from my head, what I’m going to get is a very unemotional picture that’s going to be not that interesting. I don’t always achieve the emotional element, but that’s the area I work in.

20. Obama’s People
Influence of Richard Avedon's typological photographs :Democracy (2004)The Family (1976)
Confine the sitters to a small space to see how in a short space of time they become themselves
Economy of gesture
"I thought it would be amazing to see the tiny gestures that make someone human, the way they cock their head, the way they put their hands in their pocket. It distils your look: you're almost staring at people”
Shot for New York Times 2009 inauguration gallery - a snapshot of a presidency in the ascendant
52 portraits of Obama's team- standing in a 2ft by 2ft box marked out by tape. They were asked to bring an item that disclosed something about their personality.
Up to 13 shoots in a day, 'athletic' editing as you went along
Small space , the sitter finding themselves. Economy of gesture and by reacting to it - language that goes between the sitter and the photographer. Reacting to the sitter in the moment. Each person reacting differently, amazing to see as same space, same white background.

22. I do find that, as hard as it is to be simple, the more you pare things down the more clear-sighted it is, and the quicker you can make people feel emotional about it.
A really strong example of that is the pictures of Obama’s People, where I took the subjects out of context, put them on a pure, very plain background, and just photographed exactly how they are and exactly how they stand. Those were very accurate portraits, and I think that props can do the same thing. If you are working very simply and you just introduce very little—a chess piece or a hand holding something in front of a face—the portrait becomes heightened, it becomes quite sharp. It’s because the pictures are so plain and clear. It just sometimes feels right to include something. I don’t often do it, though.

23. Rahm Emanual

24. Samantha Power

25. Titans of the Stage Shot for The New York Times
Works more collaboratively with actors
Sets
Strong composition
When I started the "Titans of the Stage" project for The New York Times, the first one I did was a tight portrait of Mark Rylance’s face. For some reason, I thought to go to the theater for some of the others, and so I started working with a background. I wanted to make them slightly theatrical. I’m very taken by Osborne sets of the '50s, where things are sort of obviously set, but very clear. I like that very clear line and set. I’m very influenced by the whole Contructivist movement of the '20s and '30s in Paris, which emphasized lines and compositions. Most of these "Titans of the Stage" shots are on sets I made. My work is very composed; not rigid, but it’s always got a very strong composition.
John Osborne – Look back in anger

27. Daniel Kaluuya

28. John Osborne sets 1950’s

29. Ann Marie Duff

30. What makes a picture memorable?
The human condition
When you recognise that in someone else, that makes the picture, painting, sculpture memorable
Many ways and states of being’

31. “When photographing such a high profile individual, it’s a huge challenge to not let their high profile take over the process,” Kander says. “I wanted to make a meaningful photograph that reflected pause in a person’s life and reflect his humanity.” Created by shadow, light revealing and hiding

32. Sources
National Portrait Gallery, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize,
National Portrait Gallery, Road to 2012,
National Portrait Gallery, Road to Aiming High, inauguration-gallery/index.html
The Telegraph, Nadav Kander: how I shot Boris Johnson, Cheryl Newman,
Time, Behind the Obama Cover: Person of the Year 2012, Kira Pollack, the-obama-cover-person-of-the-year-2012/
We Folk,
Fastcompany.com, Master Class: How to create an unforgettable portrait, Joe Berkowitz
New York Times, Titans of the Stage, actors-london.html
New York Times, Obama’s People, gallery/index.html
The Guardian, Obama's people: portraits by photographer Nadav Kander, Elizabeth Day,