Ruins of built environments exert a mysterious allure. For photographer Nadev Kander, the combination of beauty and destruction has been central to his search for an “aesthetics of destruction” that characterizes his work. Above: Loaded Priozersk II, (Tulip in Bloom), Kazakhstan 2011. © Nadav Kander/courtesy Flowers Gallery London and New York.

After completing his epic study of the Yangtze River in 2007 Kander began researching the secret military installations from Russia’s Soviet era. He was drawn to two small towns where the relentless quest for nuclear superiority resulted in the destruction not only of the buildings and landscapes of Kurchatov and Priozersk, but also its inhabitants, their food supplies and most of the wildlife. These images, and more from other testing sites in Kazakhstan and along the desolate Aral Sea, have been collected in a book titled Dust, with an exhibition opening next week in New York City.

In an essay that accompanies the book Kander writes, “Ruins conjure paradoxical emotions. We are at the same time frightened and mesmerized by destruction, as we are by death. And without being fully aware of what is pulling me, I am continually drawn to explore this theme: the darker side of our nature, of mankind.”

Priozersk I, (Military Housing), Kazakhstan, 2011. © Nadav Kander/courtesy Flowers Gallery London and New York.

The book opens with two black-and-white images of crows in trees against a dark sky dimly illuminated through a fog. The crows become a metaphor for the anxiety the photographer writes of when facing the invisible dangers in the sites where these birds were the lone survivors of a nuclear past.

The atmosphere Kander conjures in his large-format photographs must derive from the sensation he describes as a combination of beauty and melancholy that seem to, without explanation, “create a wide expanse in the work.” In these photographs of buildings and natural forms whose strong components have been softened by dereliction and neglect, there is a sense of peacefulness. But an undercurrent of fearfulness evoked by knowledge that the destruction was created by an institutional program aimed at the destruction of other civilizationsprevails. The title of the book comes from The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot: “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

Nadav Kander | Dust opens Thursday, April 7^th, with a reception for the artist from 6-8 pm at Flowers Gallery. Kander will be in conversation with Bill Hunt on Saturday, April 9^th, 4pm, at the gallery: 529 West 20^th Street, NY, NY. Info Signed copies of Dust (HatjeCantz 2014), with texts by Ted Hughes, Nadav Kander and Will Self will be available. CV19.BOOK.PHOTO