Nadav Kander made several voyages along the course of China's Yangtze River, travelling up-stream from mouth to source over a period of three years. Previously unseen photographs from the resulting body of work, Yangtze – The Long River, go on display at Flowers from 14 October 2010 to coincide with the publication of a monograph comprising the complete series.
Using the river as a metaphor for constant change Kander attempted at every stage of the journey, to relate and reflect the consequences of the incomprehensible and seemingly unnatural development in modern-day China. The journey begins at the coastal estuary, where thousands of ships leave and enter each day, and moves past renowned suicide bridges, coal mines and the largest dam in the world – The Three Gorges Dam. Further inland we encounter Chongqing – the fastest-growing urban centre on the planet.
Kander never photographed further than twenty miles from the river itself. In the shadow of epic construction projects we see workers, fishermen, swimmers and even a man washing his motorbike in the river. Dense architecture gives way to mountains in the upper reaches towards the river's Tibetan source – a sparsely populated area where the stream is mostly broken ice and just ankle deep.
