Overview

Galician photographer Xan Padrón (Ourense 1969), received his first camera at the hands of the photojournalist Enrique Reza, who awoke in him a passion for the photography of the everyday, just as his father, the journalist Luís Padrón, awoke in him the patience to listen and observe stories.

After diverse street photography projects in New York City, in 2011 he began his acclaimed project, “Time Lapse”: a collection of portraits of various cities through the people who inhabit them. His series Time Lapse has been exhibited, among other places, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, The Pfizer Building in New York, the Sala Valente in Spain, and in the art fairs Photo LA, Art on Paper NYC and The Other Art Fair, presented by Saatchi Art in London, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

In 2023, Xan Padrón was invited by the MTA Arts & Design Program in New York City to exhibit a selection of his Time Lapse series at the Bryant Park subway station (42nd Street and 6th Avenue). His work has been published on the cover of the eleventh edition of the anthology “Race, Class and Gender in the United States” (MacMillan, 2020), in the sociology volume “Personal Networks” (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and in international publications such as the New England Review (NER), Die Zeit Magazine (Germany), PRISM International (Canada), and Photo World Magazine (China). His Time Lapses were on the cover of the autumn catalog of Saatchi Art (2019) and were selected for the program Art on Link (#ArtOnLink) of the City of New York (LinkNYC, CityBridge 2020) where Xan Padrón’s sociological portraits were shared on more than 1,700 digital kiosks citywide.

Xan Padrón’s career as a photographer is also linked to his previous occupation as a professional musician. During more than a decade, he toured with his bass and his camera documenting life around musicians with whom he worked. As a photographer of artists and concerts, he has worked in an official capacity for APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals, United States) and for the publications Inside Arts and The Writer Magazine (United States).

Xan Padrón shares his life with the musician, educator, and writer Cristina Pato. Since 2005, he spends his time between Galicia and New York City and has his studio at Mana Contemporary (NJ).