Silver: From Fetish to Fashion

by Nadler, Daniel; Nadler, Serga

• ISBN13: 9780937266106
• ISBN10: 0937266108
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-30
• Publisher: Pdn Pub

Summary

This book is about our quest for silver adornments. Through it we wish to share our fascinating Odyssey, which lured us from fetish to fashion.Innocently enough, our collecting started when I traveled to Cairo while Serga remained in the States. We had met in Tehran and been reacquainted in New York. As a small token for her birthday, I picked out a Bedouin necklace of chunky corals, interspersed with silver beads, and sent it to her by messenger. While she claimed to be delighted by my attention, eventually I noticed that she seldom wore this neckpiece. I like to tease Serga with her response . . . "that she had . . . nothing compatible with which to wear it!" I should interject here that Serga was born in Iran and that compatriots from her social stratum would never consider silver as an adequate "parrure." For them, gold, emeralds, turquoises and precious stones constitute the only valid adornments. So I claim that our entire silver collection has been an attempt to satisfy my Persian lady's need to find pieces to match my original lowly silver necklace offering! Ornithologists would delight in a comparison between my activities and those of several of the "bower bird" species that behave as avian architects for their complex courting rituals.

Author Biography

Daniel Nadler's lifelong avocation for photography is continuing to receive public exposure. The Faces of Man, an exhibit of portraits he took around the world, opens as a one-man show at The National Arts Club, at 15 Gramercy Park South (20th Street, East of Park Avenue,) New York City, from Monday, April 19th through Sunday, May 2nd, 2004. On April 26th, it also opens for six months at the Park Avenue Club, in Florham Park, New Jersey.Nadler's work is best exemplified by his portraits. His powerful photographs in The Faces of Man, provide a vision of humanity from the most disparate parts of the world: Iranians from the Fars, Mazanderan and Gilan provinces, Mayas from Mexico's Yucatan, highlanders from Chiapas, descendants of freed slaves from the Cockpit country of Jamaica, Turks, hill tribespeople from Thailand, Egyptians of the upper and lower Nile, Chinese from the Yunnan, Indians from Rajasthan, and more. Nadler says : ôThese men, women and children from all walks of life, have the self-confidence to look in the eyes of a stranger with an odd hat and two cameras strapped across his chest, and to smile.ö The governing thread that runs through these portraits is a "joie de vivre" which bonds subjects together despite their origin, age or gender. Or do these portraits express Daniel Nadler's own "joie de vivre" that he imparts to those he encounters ? "Fundamentally, people represent the essence of any region," Nadler notes. "I am drawn to individuals who are characteristic, representing a nugget of life that still has not been homogenized into the industrialized world. I single them out at random and they are flattered when asked to pose. Normally they respond warmly, as you can see by their smiles, with pride of identity. Some Middle Easterners, or other groups may object to being photographed, but they are in the minority.ö Born in Egypt to European parents, Daniel Nadler emigrated to New York at age fifteen. Graduating from Cornell, he served as an officer in the Air Force in Tachikawa, Japan, where he honed his photographic skills. There he would be lured away on weekends and holidays to rice fields and multitudes of shrine festivals. "I found myself lying on my belly in the middle of Shinto purification rites, or standing on a pediment to photograph a procession. I felt compelled to capture the essence of what I was seeing." Returning to New York, he went on to establish an outstanding career as a Construction Manager, working on many high-rise office and apartment buildings in the States, Belgium, Iran, and Egypt.Still trying to capture the essence of what he sees, Daniel Nadler's second book : Iran the Beautiful recently appeared in bookstores. This lavish coffee-table book illustrates, in 170 color photographs, the magnificence of Iran and its peoples-- from surging Mt. Damavand to the splendid Safavid monuments of Isfahan; from the sere deserts of the Dasht el Kevir to the lush forests of the Gilan.Nadler responds best, seeing things for the first time with a cold or naked eye. ôOne can see with clarity everything that is new, before novelty fades and familiarity sets in.ö "As an exampleö he recalls : "in Burma I was struck by bullock-drawn carts and ploughs. I ran after every team, attempting to capture the immense strength of the huge beasts dragging carriages, tilling rice fields and engaging in bullock races. But how many buffalos can you run after ? Soon the eye 'warms up' and the novelty wears off.ö Nadler only shoots in color : "The only technical aspect of photography I consider important is depth-of-field. To me this is what renders images viable. I have just converted to digital images from film, and coping with this cutting edge technology is providing a fascinating re-education.ö Daniel Nadler and his wife Serga live in New York City. When not traveling on their photographic expeditions, they have been busy authoring two other books : China to Order (Vilo International, published in 2001) and Silver: From Fetish to Fashion (PDN Publishing, 2005) which is being prepared for printing.