Zed Nelson

Nelson was born in Uganda and raised in Hackney, East London from the age of three. He left school at 16 without formal qualifications.{{Cite web |last=Warner |first=Marigold |title=Zed Nelson captures the debilitating effects of gentrification in Hackney |url=https://www.1854.photography/2019/11/zed-nelson-the-street/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |date=2020-02-13 |title=Zed Nelson: Photographer and filmmaker on growing up in Hackney |url=https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/22931989.zed-nelson-photographer-filmmaker-growing-hackney/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Hackney Gazette |language=en}} He later studied fine art photography at the Polytechnic of Central London.

He began his career in 1990, working as a freelance photojournalist for The Independent, The Observer, Arena and The Face, and later for The Telegraph Magazine. He undertook assignments in flash-points and war zones including El Salvador, Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Africa. In 1994 in Kabul, a vehicle he was travelling in was ambushed and shot up by Afghan mujahideen, after which he moved away from photojournalism.{{Cite news |last=Lamont |first=Tom |date=2021-07-03 |title='I see people ageing - I don't always see us': one family, 30 years, 30 photographs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/03/i-see-people-ageing-i-dont-always-see-us-one-family-30-years-30-photographs |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

Gun Nation, made in the late 1990s, explored "America's deadly love affair with guns in the wake of the increasing prevalence of mass shootings." The "photo essay, book and touring exhibition marked a step away from strictly documentary work towards a more analytical approach."{{Cite web |last=Bainbridge |first=Simon |title=National Parks in Glass Cases: Zed Nelson photographs the illusions at the heart of the Anthropocene |url=https://www.1854.photography/2024/07/zed-nelson-anthropocene-profile/ |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}}

For "The Family" project, Nelson has photographed the same family, in the same way and at the same time every year, from 1991 to the present (2025).{{Cite news |date=2010-10-22 |title=Once there was a boy... |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2010/oct/23/boy-to-man-20-years-photographs |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} The book Love Me (2009) is about the reach of the global beauty industry, cataloguing "operations and other bodily transformations — some of them practically medieval — in 17 countries on five continents." In the early 2010s, Nelson made portraits of people from a "disappearing Britain": war veterans, miners, boxers and fishermen;{{Cite news |last=Morrison |first=Blake |date=2011-03-12 |title=Goodbye to all that {{!}} Zed Nelson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2011/mar/12/goodbye-to-all-that-zed-nelson-photographs |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} and photographed people helping to create the then newly emerging country of South Sudan.{{Cite news |date=2011-11-04 |title=South Sudan: first things first – in pictures |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2011/nov/04/south-sudan-nation-builders-zed-nelson |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} "Hackney: A Tale of Two Cities" (2014), is about "hyper-gentrification" and the "bizarre juxtapositions of wealth and poverty, aspiration and hopelessness".{{Cite web |last=Estrin |first=James |date=2012-08-06 |title=In the Olympics' Shadow, a Tale of Two Cities |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/in-the-olympics-shadow-a-tale-of-two-cities/ |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=The New York Times |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2012-09-14 |title=Hackney – A Tale Of Two Cities |url=https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2012/09/14/hackney-a-tale-of-two-cities-zed-nelson/ |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=Hackney Citizen |language=en-GB}} Some of the work from "Hackney: A Tale of Two Cities" appeared in his book A Portrait of Hackney (2014).{{Cite web |last=Padley |first=Gemma |title=Young imprint publishes Zed Nelson book |url=https://www.1854.photography/2014/05/young-imprint-publishes-zed-nelson-book/ |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}} In 2015 he photographed the homes of Britain's billionaires.{{Cite web |first1=Brennavan |last1=Sritharan|first2=Diane |last2=Smyth |title=BJP #7844: Shooting the Rich |url=https://www.1854.photography/2016/01/bjp-7844-shooting-the-rich/ |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}}

The Anthropocene Illusion "explores the fractured relationship between humans and the natural world."{{Cite news |last=Stone |first=Mee-Lai |date=2025-04-17 |title=Apes, toilets, conflicts and cowboys: Sony World Photography awards – in pictures |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/apr/17/apes-toilets-conflicts-and-cowboys-sony-world-photography-awards-in-pictures |access-date=2025-04-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} "It is less concerned with evidencing environmental catastrophe than exploring how and why we let it happen." The project was made over six years and four continents.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Megan |date=2025-04-17 |title=Zed Nelson earns top prize at Sony World Photo Awards 2025 |url=https://www.creativereview.co.uk/zed-nelson-winners-sony-world-photography-awards-2025/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Creative Review |language=en-UK}}

Shelter in Place (2009) "exposes malpractices in the petrochemical industry in Texas".{{Cite news |date=2011-01-14 |title=Zed Nelson turns the heat on Big Oil |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jan/14/zed-nelson-shelter-in-place |access-date=2025-04-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Europe's Immigration Disaster (2014), filmed over a five-month period, tells the story of the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck.{{Cite web |last=Padley |first=Gemma |title=Channel 4 airs Zed Nelson immigration film |url=https://www.1854.photography/2014/06/channel-4-airs-zed-nelson-immigration-film/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}} Following his 2000 book of the same name, the film Gun Nation (2016) is about guns in America, for which Nelson "captured unguarded interviews with the Americans who use guns every day, as well as one affected by disaster".{{Cite news |last=Phillips |first=Charlie |date=2016-09-16 |title=Gun Nation: inside the US's deadly obsession |url=https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/sep/16/gun-nation-us-guardian-documentary-film-zed-nelson |access-date=2025-04-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} His first feature-length film The Street (2019), made over 4 years, examined similar issues to his "Hackney: A Tale of Two Cities" photography project. The film "captures the rapid gentrification of Hoxton Street — a historically working-class neighbourhood in Hackney, one of London's poorest boroughs."{{Cite web |date=2019-11-29 |title=The Street |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-street/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Empire |language=en}}

Nelson lives in London.{{Cite web |title=Zed Nelson - photographer |url=https://www.zednelson.com/?Biography |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=www.zednelson.com}}

• Gun Nation. Westzone, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0953743834}}.
• In This Land. 2013. Published to coincide with an exhibition at Noorderlicht, the Netherlands. Edition of 200 copies.
• Love Me. Rome: Contrasto, 2009. {{ISBN|978-8869651656}}. With an introduction by Tim Adams and a foreword by Susan Bright.
• A Portrait of Hackney. Book 3: East London Photo Stories. London: Hoxton Mini Press, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-9576998-3-0}}.

• The Slate Sea. Camden Trust, 2015. Edited by Nelson and Paul Henry. Photographs by Nelson, poems by A. Conran, Menna Elfyn, Paul Henry, Christopher Meredith, Owen Sheers, and {{ill|Samantha Wynne Rhydderch|cy}}. With a foreword by Bob Borezello and an introduction by Tom Henry. {{ISBN|9780993250903}}.

• Shelter in Place (2009) – director, cinematographer; 48 mins
• Europe's Immigration Disaster (Channel 4, 2014) – director, cinematographer; 30 mins
• Gun Nation (2016) – director, producer, cinematographer; 30 mins
• The Street (2019) – director, producer, cinematographer; 94 mins{{Cite news |last=Clarke |first=Cath |date=2019-11-27 |title=The Street review – quietly enraging portrait of Hoxton lives on the brink |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/27/the-street-review-hoxton-street-east-end-london-documentary-zed-nelson |access-date=2025-04-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |title=The Street review – Captivating view of the consequences of gentrification |url=https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-street/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Little White Lies |language=en}}

• 1998: Winner, Visa d'or Feature Award, Visa pour l'Image, France for Gun Nation{{Cite web |title=Visa d'or Feature Award |url=https://www.visapourlimage.com/en/festival/awards-and-grants/visa-d-or-magazine-5f535c9d5f391 |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Visa pour l'image |language=en}}
• 1998: First prize, Daily Life Award, World Press Photo 1997, Amsterdam for Gun Nation{{Cite web |title=1998 Zed Nelson DL1 |url=https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo-contest/1998/zed-nelson/1 |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=World Press Photo}}
• 1999: First prize, Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York City for Gun Nation{{cn|date=April 2025}}
• 2010: Third prize, Contemporary Issues, World Press Photo 2010, Amsterdam for Love Me{{Cite web |title=2010 Zed Nelson CI3 |url=https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo-contest/2010/zed-nelson/1 |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=World Press Photo}}
• 2010: First prize, Pictures of the Year International, for Love Me
• 2025: Photographer of the Year, Sony World Photography Awards, for The Anthropocene Illusion{{Cite web |date=2025-04-20 |title=2025 Sony World Photography Awards: Winners revealed |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qww2rv0y0o |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Carter |first=Kalum |date=2025-04-16 |title=Zed Nelson beats record-breaking 419,820 photo entries from 206 countries to win Sony World Photographer of the Year 2025! |url=https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/photography/awards-and-competitions/british-photographer-zed-nelson-wins-sony-world-photography-awards-2025-beating-a-staggering-419-820-other-entries |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Digital Camera World |language=en}}

• Zed Nelson: Love Me, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, March–May 2011; then toured to Perspektivet Museum, Norway, October 2012 – January 2013; Durham Art Gallery, May–June 2012; and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, February–June 2013{{Cite web |title=Zed Nelson: Love Me |url=https://www.impressions-gallery.com/event/zed-nelson-love-me/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Impressions Gallery|language=en}}

Nelson's work is held in the following permanent collection:

• Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 2 prints from Gun Nation{{Cite web |title=Search Results {{!}} V&A Explore the Collections |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?id_person=A11757&page=1&page_size=15 |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Victoria and Albert Museum |language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|www.zednelson.com}}
• {{imdb name|nm3684868}}

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Category:21st-century British photographers

Category:British documentary photographers

Category:British documentary film directors

Category:Photographers from the London Borough of Hackney

Category:Alumni of the Polytechnic of Central London

Category:Living people

Category:1960s births