Nadav Kander and the Mighty Yangtze

October 19, 2012, 12:19pm

One in every 18 people on earth live on the shores of the Yangtze, the 4,000-mile river that roughly cuts China in half from east to west. Over a three-year period, photographer Nadav Kander made five trips to the Yangtze, traveling against the current, documenting the river and the people who live near it. Humans in his photos are dwarfed by the surrounding landscape, a conscious decision on Nadav’s part to compensate for his outsider status. He uses the river is a metaphor for the unstoppable industrial and economic revolution happening in China. According to Nadav, “China is a nation that appears to be severing its roots by destroying its past. Demolition and construction were everywhere on such a scale that I was unsure if what I was seeing was being built or destroyed.”

The photos are stunning, meditative, and calming, and the picture of the bathers on the rock is my current desktop background image–the highest praise I can give.

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The series, entitled “Yangtze, the Long River,” is currently on display at Flowers Gallery in Chelsea. Seriously, don’t miss seeing these images in person.