Bio:
A Tennessee native with a PhD in physics from Cambridge University, Nathan Dean was recognized later in life as a brilliant photographer. His portraits radiate an immediate clarity and simplicity based in the belief that – as Jean-Luc Godard put it – “When you photograph a face, you can photograph the soul behind it.” He distills each composition to its essential elements, enhancing only what serves the subject, often reducing images to striking black and white. By fusing clarity of vision with revealing exposition, his photographs spark moments of self-discovery and silent wonder in every viewer. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia but continues to photograph the world.
Statement:
I cannot shed my skin and become another person. I cannot feel what they feel, dream what they dream. But my images let me imagine myself in the skins of others. With them I can capture moments of revelation, moments of truth, moments in which I see in others things I sense – or hope to sense – in myself. In my viewfinder, I work to find the soul of my subject; in my computer afterwards, I work to emphasize what is essential and to eliminate what isn’t, so that the viewer will see their innate humanness.
