Photographer Adam Nadel selected as Fermilab's new artist-in-residence for 2018

The U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has announced that New York-based photographer Adam Nadel has been selected as the lab's artist-in-residence for 2018.

Nadel's work lives in the place where journalism and art collide. His most recent exhibit, "Getting the Water Right," examines the people and science involved in the Florida Everglades ecosystem, putting a human face to restoration efforts. His previous touring exhibitions investigated the global impact of malaria and the effects of violence on noncombatants in Darfur, Baghdad and other places. His work has received numerous awards and grants, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2006, with more than a dozen solo museum exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

Nadel began his career as a photojournalist, first serving as the photo editor for the University of Chicago's student paper, the Maroon, while earning his undergraduate degree. He then landed several high-profile photojournalism assignments. Many of his exhibits, including "Noncombatants," were created in tandem with his journalism work.

"After a while I began to see that what I valued was different from what I originally thought I would be interested in," Nadel said of his photojournalism career. "I migrated away from spot news and into using the visual lexicon to formulate larger ideas."

Nadel refers to himself as a craftsman, rather than as an artist, and his work focuses on finding the human element in complex ecosystems. Though there is a component of activism in exhibits like "Getting the Water Right," Nadel prefers to document without pushing an agenda.

"I see what I do as fundamentally trying to communicate the worlds that I am visiting, not to interpret them to say something about them," he said. "What I find interesting is providing everyone with the facts to create agreed-upon relationships, whether it be water systems or political systems. If we can agree on those facts, we can begin to have a reasonable conversation with an outcome based in mutual understanding."

Nadel has never visited Fermilab before, but is an avid reader of books and articles on physics. He plans four trips to the lab over the next year to document both the science and the people behind it. While many photographers in his position would concentrate on the complexity and symmetry of the massive science machines at Fermilab, Nadel said he is interested in connecting those machines to the human element that guides the laboratory.

"Photographically that mechanical side seems removed from what we see as humanity," he said. "It's beautiful, but is that all we've got? Science is inherently a human endeavor and I hope to build a bridge linking people to the science they create."

Nadel will give a brief talk on his selection as the 2018 Artist-in-Residence at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, in Fermilab's Curia II conference room, adjacent to the Fermilab Art Gallery, off Pine Street in Batavia. The public is welcome to attend.

Fermilab launched the artist-in-residence program in 2014 as a way of connecting the laboratory's science with new audiences using the medium of art. Nadel is the first photographer and first out-of-state artist chosen for the program. Oak Brook textiles artist Lindsay Olson was the first artist-in-residence in 2015, and Chicago multimedia artist Ellen Sandor of (art) n held the position in 2016.

See more of Nadel's work at his website, www.adamnadel.com.