Melanie Acevedo has been casually photographing her two children, Violet and Rocky, since they were born, but her photos were far from personal snapshots. The images she captured alternately revealed the inner life of her children as well as the marvel of being a parent and watching your child grow. They were universal moments with real impact, despite having been caught on the fly.
Inspired by other people’s response to the photos, Melanie decided four years ago to formally explore the subject of her children, shooting them every week for a year. A commercial photographer for clients like Target, KitchenAid, and Electrolux, Melanie is skilled at creating stylish lifestyle images that feel like slices of real life. But in photographing her kids, she would be responding in the moment—no setups, no prelight days, no comps, no directing the talent. The result was “52 Weeks,” which she has since renamed “Another 52 Weeks” because she is now dedicated to continuing the project indefinitely.
“For me, being so busy producing commercial work for a living, the project was a way to try and start focusing my eye in a different way, and giving myself the structure to work on it on a regular basis, which enabled me to look at the progress that may or may not happen photographically over a period of time,” Melanie tells Feature Shoot in a profile on “Another 52 Weeks” published today. “I am now in my fourth year of this project. And it is my intention to do it for the rest of my life. It is my legacy to my children.”
Read more about “Another 52 Weeks” at Feature Shoot: “Tender Photos Convey the Beauty and Innocence of Childhood.” And view the entire project online at 52weeks.melanieacevedo.com.
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Rocky and Squirrel. Photo by Melanie Acevedo from “Another 52 Weeks.”
Violet and Squirrel. Photo by Melanie Acevedo from “Another 52 Weeks.”
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“Dust,” Nadav Kander’s new exhibition and monograph, explores the radioactive ruins of secret cities on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia
“Priozersk XIV (I Was Told She Once Held an Oar), Kazakhstan,” 2011, by Nadav Kander, from “Dust.” Image courtesy of Flowers Gallery, London and New York.
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Nadav Kander‘s latest fine-art photo project, “Dust,” explores the vestiges of the Cold War through the radioactive ruins of secret cities on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia. An exhibition of the work opened last week at the Flowers Gallery in London, and Hatje Cantz has published a 128-page monograph featuring 50 color images and text by Nadav and British author Will Self, as well as a poem by Ted Hughes.
From the official press release:
Priozersk (formally known as ‘Moscow 10’) and Kurchatov are closed cities, restricted military zones, concealed and not shown on maps until they were ‘discovered’ by Google Earth. Enlisted to the pursuits of science and war, the sites were utilized for the covert testing of atomic and long-distance weapons. Falsely claimed as uninhabited, the cities, along with nearby testing site ‘The Polygon’ set the stage for one of the most cynical experiments ever undertaken. Scientists watched and silently documented the horrifying effects of radiation and pollution on the local population and livestock
Demolished to preserve their military secrets, the areas now consist predominantly of the ruinous architecture and desolate landscapes featured in Kander’s hauntingly beautiful photographs. A result of the Cold War and of the relentless quest for nuclear armaments, the ruins stand as accidental monuments to the melancholic, dark and destructive side of human nature. Fascinated by the area’s past and driven by discovery, Kander’s photographs portray stark fact and bleak setting with a characteristic poeticism. Secrets seem to seep from the silence of the crumbling monuments, bowing under heavy grey skies. Describing what he saw as ‘empty landscapes of invisible dangers’ Kander’s images evoke his sense of awe and fear as he responded to these places and to the weight of their history.
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Selected press:
“Nadav Kander: ‘Dust’ in pictures. Highlights from the London-based photographer’s haunting series of images of the ruins of a Soviet nuclear test site,” The Guardian
“The Human Condition in Soviet Ruins,” Lens blog, The New York Times
“Photographs by Nadav Kander reveal Kazakhstan’s nuclear past,” Financial Times
“Nadav Kander: Radioactive ruins of secret Soviet towns,” BBC
“Nadav Kander’s new show explores the radioactive ruins of two secret cities,” It’s Nice That
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The cover of “Dust,” by Nadav Kander. Published by Hatje Cantz.
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