Art Photo Collector

“Nature is a mirror in which I am reflected, because by rescuing this land from sad devastation (through recreating it in photographs), I am in fact trying to save myself from my own inner sadness.” —Mario Giacomelli 

The Israeli born, South African reared, and London-based artist Nadav Kander’s latest solo exhibit at Flowers Gallery in New York, takes us on a journey deep into China. Following the Yangtze River, from mouth to source, Kander’s images are vast and melancholy. We see a river, vital to its country and people, in perilous transformation.

We are all aware of the breathtaking economic expansion taking place in China, but the consequences of that progress, taking its toll on the land and people, is overlooked and underestimated. Kander, widely respected for his landscape work, is giving us a glimpse of the future and its terrible costs.  —Lane Nevares

“I wanted to change history and preserve humanity. But in the process I changed myself and preserved my own.” —Danny Lyon 

Danny Lyon is one of the greats of American Photography.  He has been walking-the-walk, documenting the people and the struggles in the world since the mid 1960’s. His work is old-school Leica, and he is still in top form hanging with local folk and communicating their lives through his lens.

Lyon’s upcoming exhibit at Churner and Churner gallery, opening October 18th, features work from China’s Shanxi Province, where he traveled between 2005-2009. The show, with over 40 gelatin silver prints on display, reveals Lyon’s reflections and insights on this northeastern Chinese coal country and its people. Lyon, unlike most photographers who shoot and observe passively, has always believed in the photographer as an active participant with his subjects. His new work is true to form. —Lane Nevares

“And why is it good? For its own sake. For magnifying the artist’s process. For exalting the principles of nature, the acquired wisdom of man and that to which he aspires—illuminations.”—Patti Smith

The aforementioned quote is from the preface to Lynn Davis’s monograph, Monument. It elegantly opens up the conversation of why one creates art. Whether it’s poetry, philosophy, prose, painting, sculpture, science, music or photography, the true believers seek the good. Patti Smith and Lynn Davis have been friends a long time. I suppose in their own ways they’ve been fellow travelers.

Lynn Davis’s work, which is widely known and collected, spans continents and invites contemplation. Through her old Rolleiflex camera she captures an austere graciousness in the remnants of civilizations past and present. The unique tone of her prints, seen first hand, is remarkable. But what captivates me most in her work is the spirit of travel, the connection to that inherent part of ourselves that wants to see the world.

Davis’s latest exhibit, “Modern Views of Ancient Treasures,” opens this Friday in Venice, Italy at the National Museum of Archaeology. —Lane Nevares