Features
Featured New Artist: Dominic Nahr
Dominic Nahr is an award winning, 24 year old, upcoming photographer, who’s recent series, When Brothers Fight, can currently be seen in Canada’s Contact Festival and in the upcoming Look3 Festival of the Photograph.
Nahr, who’s base will be moving in two months to both Berlin and Cairo, is originally from Germany and Switzerland, but lived in Hong Kong for 21 years. “I am going to use the base in Berlin to help me with my personal projects in that region,” Nahr comments. To which he adds, “I will be using Cairo, while working in Africa and the Middle East.”
A recent graduate of Ryerson University Nahr explains, “I got into photography because my mother was upset that I never remembered the trips we made as a family. That said, I really didn’t get into photography until I accepted an internship with the local newspaper in Hong Kong called the, South China Morning Post. I have always been attracted to news and history, which is why I became a photographer. I believe that I am shooting for history rather than for current themes.”
He continues, “There are so many aspects of photography that interest me, which is why it will never let go of me. It’s the search for explanations to situations and emotions through the use of the visual language and the recording of moments that define human relationships and define me, as a photographer, to the subjects I photograph.”
Nahr characterizes his photography as falling into, “the realm between documentary and photojournalism, because I am a very particular with what I shoot. I follow my instincts when it comes to who and what I want to photograph. I find that I have the ability to understand situations and see shades of gray, rather than black or white. My photographs are heavy with symbolism, because I want to illustrate the egalitarian nature of man. In my personal work, I am not interested in specifically defining the story of the present, but more so simply looking at how people deal with the pressures that have been placed upon them. I try to place myself into the situation, while including my insight of an outsider in the pictures.”
When Brothers Fall Apart, is a series Nahr shot in Gaza. Nahr concludes, “it is a story about what happens when hope breaks down and a community tears itself apart in a civil war. Specifically I am looking at the factional tensions in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah members and what the results of those are.”
Web: www.dominicnahr.com
Dominic Nahr is this week’s Featured New Artist from our friends at Aurora Photos. Aurora’s staff regularly seeks out new, up and coming photographers to highlight on abouttheimage.com. We hope our readers will enjoy learning about these young pro-photographers and seeing examples of their outstanding work. Photographers who would like to be considered for publication as a Featured New Artist can submit their resume and portfolio by email to fna [at] abouttheimage.com.
