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[9Mb] [7Mb ] Marc Nader’s Loco-(E)motions ©Colette KHALAF | L’Orient-Le Jour , November 11, 2009 (Translated from French) Through a series of photographs (giclée-printed on canvas) on display at Aïda Cherfan Gallery (Downtown Beirut), on the theme "Locomotion Means", photographer Marc Nader tells us about his credo, already famous: “Less is more.” Until November 27.
« “Loco-Motifs” is not an exhibit depicting the functionality of transportation means, but rather an illustration of their graphic aspect”, says Marc Nader. For a long time have sounds and images surrounded the childhood of this self-taught artist. His mother being a pianist, the young Nader feels quickly attracted to music, which will later become his hobby, and photography which will become his primary passion. Thus, Marc Nader has been devoting himself, for over four decades now, to his favorite “sport”: Image hunter – of course once he fulfilled his promise to obtain his Business degree - as he says. In 1983, he establishes himself in the States, but returns to Lebanon in 1996 when he is offered the position of Photography Lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut.
«Less is more » but also « Better is the enemy of good », this is
what appears from this collection of giclée prints on canvas.
Spotting and isolating the detail to bring it out, Marc Nader is
inviting us to see close-ups of automobiles or tires, ships and
boats, trains and rails, because, he says “It is the detail that
gives more strength to the idea I want to get across . Therefore, I
discard, and trim anything that might weakens the message”.
Everything is in the detail … Curious of everything around him, Marc Nader sharpens his vision and shoots. Ever since he’s been in the photography business, the artist has always followed the same visual approach. Of course, technology helps widen the visual field, while bringing improvements to the production process, « but if I had to reshoot those images, I would do it in exactly the same way ». Then he adds « One should not only concentrate on the side because doing so, photography will not be a work of art comparable to painting or any other art, but rather a well crafted piece of work.” Through smart positioning of elements and an acute sense of composition, this photographer, always concerned with the tiniest detail and the quality of light, creates emotions. “I am obsessed with composition, and the interactive dynamics of different materials amazes me, seduces me. I also aim at making the transition between one element and the other free of any blanks. Unless those are functional and useful, thus creating interesting vanishing points”.
Simple and refined, these photographs tell us beautiful stories. In color or black and white. So what! Isn’t life itself sometime color and sometime monochrome ? These images not only tell us about travel and exile, but also about freedom, and the thirst for open space. In every photograph there are those suspension points which allow the viewer to wander inside the image and to half-open distant horizons. “Those are simple ideas, explains Nader, which have no intention whatsoever to change the world, but rather to show it from a different perspective.” “What I regret is certainly not the photographs that I discarded or lost, but rather those I was unable to capture, not having my camera with me. Nevertheless, those images are recorded in my head.” While saying that, one could spot in his eyes a furtive lightning. Like a flash burst from a pleasure that is still intact.<
home I about I main gallery I beauty I edition prints I students' vault I interviews my music I my videos I guest gallery I ordering & booking info I contact Lifestyle Magazine Richard Labaki - © Lifestyle ME, December 2008 Defining himself as a beauty-obsessed photographer, Marc Nader considers a genuine photo to be an invitation to the viewer to travel far within its dimensions – to discover it some more every single day. A real photo should simply be a doorway to another world. And one has to admire and contemplate it just like he or she would marvel at an artistic masterpiece. Nader believes that many walk by certain objects or landmarks regularly and never even notice the beauty that is there right in front of their eyes. And that is why those who observe Nader’s photos are surprised to see how the mundane elements of life could look so breathtakingly beautiful. Beauty is in fact everywhere only if you know where to look for it, only if you know how to extract it from its sometimes-ugly surroundings. Nader’s main objective is to have others entertain the same elevated emotions he experiences as he is taking a specific image. For him, composing a photo entails adopting the same approach as that of composing music. Growing up in a somehow artistic environment (his mother was a classic musician and painter) it could be that this influenced his outlook on life and opened up his eyes on beauty that lies all around him. And although he acquired a degree in business, Nader decided to follow a career in photography early on and nurtured this passion by attending exhibitions, reading specialized magazines and experimenting through trial and error. The year 1966 signaled the beginning of his journey in the realm of photography, as he purchased his first camera. Five years later, Nader turned pro.
What could be simpler as an image than a boat floating on water? The sun is sending its rays in the right direction; the light is marvelous as it embraces the boat. The contrasting colors are captivating. And the scene kept changing its shape by the minute; Nader actually spent 10 minutes lost in what he was seeing. Prepared his equipment and waited for the right moment to shoot. The photo represents simplicity and tranquility, and lures the viewer to wander deep inside its composition. Nader never tires of contemplating this image, which he believes has a painting-like quality. This image, he maintains, is pure poetry.< Marc Nader, His Pictures, His Music Zéna Zalzal - © L'Orient-Le Jour, August 2007 (Translated from French) " I speak French, English, Arabic, Music, and Pictures", says Marc Nader in an introductory sally. An "artistic multilinguism" that this "natural-born communicator" uses as a communication means and emotional vector to link with the others. Photographer for nearly four decades, music writer for as long, and occasionally singer (he recorded two years ago a "Soft Rock" album), Marc Nader likes to track and convey the aesthetical emotion, which, in his eyes, can emerge from an alignment of beach chairs as well as a beautiful face, an interesting landscape, or a few music notes harmoniously backing meaningful lyrics.
"To be a photographer, one must be willing to look at things differently" he says. For Marc Nader, it is the photographer's eye that isolate elements, brings out a detail, chisels a composition ... To sum it up, the photographer's eye construct the image well before releasing the shutter. All the rest is just a matter of pure technique.
He strongly believes that "Less is more". Minimalism and rigorous composition. "I'm a composition freak. Composition ought to be perfectly balanced and devoid of any unnecessary element" he says. But also simplicity in the wording, so that the photograph can speak, in order to trigger a "universal emotion", even if each one perceives it differently.
Once those two requirements are well understood, all the rest
becomes complementary, additional and adaptable, depending on the
modalities and the main purpose of the image. For instance the
choice of color versus black & white, this subtle interaction of
lights and darks, which Marc Nader is particularly attracted to. Totally self-taught, this camera fine artist says he never attended a photography class. Except that, ever since his early childhood, he dwelt in a universe of images and sounds. His mother was a classical pianist and a painter. Which leads him to take up piano at age 7. In his early teenage years he chooses the guitar. "Rock 'n' Roll" is thriving and Marc Nader is going to put together several rock groups.
From that moment on, his career as a fine art photographer is going to gear up in Lebanon. At the same time, he is going to move forward in the field of advertising and, a few years later, his musical skills helping, he is going to start writing jingles. In the eighties he wrote a hit jingle "that was aired for a full 2 years on RMC", for a Japanese brand of watches, based on the tempo and actual sound of a vintage mechanical alarm clock", he says, still amused after all those years. Always this interaction of image and music. During the civil war, Marc leaves for France and then the United States, where he will set up and run his photography studio until 1996, when he can't resist returning to Lebanon. There, the American University of Beirut offers him a Lecturer position in the Department of Architecture and Design, which is going to give him the opportunity to concentrate simultaneously on his "personal artistic work". Ever since, alternating between his academic and creative endeavors, Marc Nader is a happy man. Happy to teach: "I love that interaction with my students who bring me in freshness as much if not more than what I give them", he says with enthusiasm and modesty. Happy to "capture through his lens the indefinable", this challenge of seeing instantaneously objects, places, landscapes, and especially faces in which he tries to capture the soul. Happy to be recording "for fun", with the help of his long-time friend Claude Salhani (who wrote the lyrics) an album of his compositions, "In The Confines of Your Head" (a blend of soft rock, somehow reminiscent of Leonard Cohen and Dire Straits), whose release was unfortunately scheduled at the wrong time when Rafic Hariri was assassinated two years ago, but that you can download online. And quite happy to prepare - after taking part in the Salon d'Automne of the Sursock Museum - an exhibit in Dubai, which will be also featuring works of Pete Turner, "the undisputed master of color photography", Marc Nader says proudly, he who could be also labeled as a virtuoso of "musical photography", that which combines composition, rythm, and orchestration of colors ...< home I about I main gallery I beauty I edition prints I students' vault I interviews my music I my videos I guest gallery I ordering & booking info I contact Troubled Times Henry Bateman, Publisher- PissedPoetPics.Com, © The Expat, April 2007 Troubled Times, the latest guest gallery to be added at Pissedpoet Pics is a series of photographs from Lebanon by Marc Nader. A teacher at the American University in Beirut, he has lived through this country’s turbulent recent history. The photographs in Troubled Times depict Nader’s relationship with his home. He has captured the beauty of the country, that keeps drawing him back despite the danger to life and limb. With a true artist’s eye, Nader’s photographs make powerful statements devoid of any sentimentality. His images tell of his ongoing affair with the Lebanon and how a place and its people can capture a human heart. The photographs in Troubled Times speak from the heart.< Nader Photographs Narrate Stories © Dina Abou Salem Dean, AUB Bulletin Today - April 2006
Unique
symmetry, richness, and mystery characterized the photographs of
Marc Nader, which were exhibited in West Hall from March 20 to 31.
His work is of the kind that tells the viewer stories that would
have been lost to oblivion had it not been for his keen and
sensitive camera eye. home I about I main gallery I beauty I edition prints I students' vault I interviews my music I my videos I guest gallery I ordering & booking info I contact Marc Nader's Photographic Panorama Maya Ghandour Hert - © L'Orient-Le Jour, March 2006 (Translated from French)
Choosing the exhibited images was quite a painstaking task. "There were many photographs I wanted to include in the exhibit. But many were lost during the civil war". Thus, he had to make his selections somehow playing it by ear, following his hunch. "Those photographs represent my own way of seeing things. After all isn't photography a means to express artistically ideas that are at anybody's arm's reach" wonders the photographer. Indeed, he thinks that taking photographs boils down to dealing appearances, objects, light, textures. "I have always been fascinated by all those bjects that surround us. And images belong to the world of objects ... Images capture those objects that really want to be seen. I capture the specific seduction that lies within objects. And because objects capture your attention, you capture them with your eyes." It becomes a kind of exchange, of complicity ...
T
home I about I main gallery I beauty I edition prints I students' vault I interviews my music I my videos I guest gallery I ordering & booking info I contact The Beiteddine Festival Catalog Natacha Sikias - © L’orient-Le Jour, Juily 1997 (Translated from French) This year, the Beiteddine Festival "catalog" sports a harmonious new look. The traditional advertising pages have been replaced with fine art photographs, along with the advertiser's logo. Some 60 photographs, most of them created by Marc Nader, and a few by Saad El Hakim. Images that combine musical instruments to the architecture of the palace. The catalog was "designed"by Leila Musfy.
"Enthused over the total creative freedom I was given, I accepted the job right away", says Marc Nader who returned from the United States a year ago. "The initial idea was to photograph instruments. For the location, I suggested the palace. It was a way to be in the heart of the "subject". Randomly choosing an instrument, I tried to bring out an interaction between the rich and detailed, intrinsic architectural graphics of Beiteddine, and the functional graphics of the instrument. What came out from that interaction was a third element, which overwhelmed me: visual music". Marc Nader stresses the joy that this mission gave him: "I felt like a beginner at photography. I worked for three months, taking my time, having access to every spot in the palace". As far as the instruments, Nader uses those from his collection and borrows quite a few from friends and from the Mozart Chahine music stores. "That's how I discovered some "funny", quite interesting instruments such as the South American kokarico, that imitates the sounds of nature; an antique Pan flute, and another one, Inca ...". "On the technical side, my motto was to keep things as simple as possible", points Nader. "I chose a simple medium format camera, one single lens, and a tripod. No additional lighting, no reflectors, no gobos; only available natural light. I feel that technical acrobatics are not a prerequisite for a successful photograph". The result is there, spread over 52 pages. Sharpness, combination of shapes and colors ... the setting fully serving the instrument, bringing it out, or vice versa. Images with almost a tactile feel, like the "grain" of this "oriental" tambourine hide, placed on a backlit, stained glass window ...
"I would love photography to be recognized as a full-fledged art. Black and White as well as Color", he says. "One could do marvels with so little. Since I got back, I've been shocked by all the plagiarism that you find for example in advertising. Just look around you to find ideas, to create, to invent". Well, for that you need to have the eye ... and the gift.< Marc Nader - La Musique au Palais Hervé Le Goff - © www.photographie.com, Juily 1997 (Translated from French) The work on musical instruments was actually commissioned by the 1997 Beiteddine Festival. In order to get away from the dull catalog constraints, Marc Nader had the idea of associating the musical instruments to the architecture of their princely home. The resulting images are amazing and precious. Marble, woods, and brass in total communion, under the tutelary sign of art.< home I about I main gallery I beauty I edition prints I students' vault I interviews my music I my videos I guest gallery I ordering & booking info I contact
Copyright © 1966-2011 Marc Nader. All Rights Reserved.
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