Zsolt Kadar lives and works in Los Angeles, California, having previously lived in Brooklyn, New York. A 2006 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Photography, working in both black and white and color, some of the projects that he has completed are two long term photographic projects about a single mother of two in Brooklyn spanning 32 years, A Life Worth Living and True to Life. Landscape projects include a look at the post 9/11 landscape of America, Some Say Land of Paradise, Some Say Land of Pain, an architectural project, The Structure of Los Angeles, that maps the social landscape of Los Angeles through it's built environment and, most recently, The New Housing that is comprised of images of hundreds of transient homeless shelters around Los Angeles County, and functions as a contemporary critique of the state of care for the homeless.
Since 1992, concurrent with his photographic projects, he has worked in various capacities in the camera departments of motion picture films and television shows. A selection of the projects for which he worked include The Devil’s Own, The Devil’s Advocate, The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of Sam, Snake Eyes, Armageddon, Monsoon Wedding, Deadwood, Desperate Housewives, Garden State and Dunkirk. Most recently he acted as cinematographer for video installation pieces by artist An-My Lê, Small Wars and 29 Palms, that screened at The Museum of Modern Art as part of her retrospective Between Two Rivers, an untitled documentary project for Robert Pollidori about the key avant-garde filmmakers of the 1970s, and segments for Rob Reiner’s film Defending My Life.
Born Nagyvàrad, Transylvania
Emigrates to Brooklyn, NY
BFA Photography, School of Visual Arts, NY
1991 - Starts 32 year project A LIFE WORTH LIVING which continues in TRUE TO LIFE
1996 - Begins extended photographic project LE MAL DU PAYS, reconciling childhood stories with the homogenization of current day Europe
2000 - Works on MONSOON WEDDING in India, stays on for two months to photograph SUBCONTINENTAL
2001 - Begins to compile images for SOME SAY LAND OF PARADISE, SOME SAY LAND OF PAIN
2001 - Moves to Los Angeles, California
2006 - Receives John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography
2006 - THE STRUCTURE OF L.A., reflecting the political, economic and social environment through architecture
2009 - Shows in eros/thanatos at PØST Gallery Los Angeles and Project Space Kreuzberg, Berlin
2010 - eros/thanatos - 12 Gauge Series, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance CA
2010 - The New Yorker magazine publishes profile and online portfolio of A LIFE WORTH LIVING & TRUE TO LIFE
2010/2013 - Exhibits in PANNAROMA in New Orleans, Miami and New York
2014 - Continues to photograph in Los Angeles, SOME OTHER HOLLYWOOD
2015 - Participates in online photographic project A New Nothing
2017 - Exhibits in Close To Me at the National Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2019 - Published in School of Visual Arts Journal, Seeing California: SVA Photographers Take on the Golden State
2019/2023 - Begins compiling pictures for The New Housing, documenting the homeless crisis in Los Angeles
2022/2023 - Exhibits in Other People’s Pictures: Gifts from the Robert and Kerstin Adams Collection, Denver Art Museum with accompanying catalog
COLLECTIONS
Denver Art Museum and various private collections
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