NADAV KANDER - YANGTZE, THE LONG RIVER
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Photographs of the constantly changing landscape along the Yangtze River, before the initial startup of the Three Gorges Dam
Authentic images of Chinas leap into a new era
Nadav Kander (*1961 in Israel) creates images in an age of radical change: in a series awarded the famed Prix Pictet in 2009, he photographed a China in the process of revolution. Traveling along the Yangtze River, he took serene pictures of people haplessly facing overwhelming change. In these pictures, the riverChinas main arterybecomes a metaphor of constant transformation. The tiny figure of a mother with a baby in her arms leans against a huge bridge piling, and one cannot help but wonder what the country will look like when this child is an adult. There are still traces of the old China, for whose spirituality the river was important, but the idyllic old buildings and houseboats have been replaced by colossal new apartment complexes that emulate Western architecture. As Kander himself says: China is a nation that appears to be severing its roots by destroying its past in the wake of the sheer force of its moving forward at such an astounding and unnatural pace. A people scarring their country, and a country scarring its people.
