Zed Nelson

Zed Nelson lives in London and studied Photography at Westminster University. He divides his time between long-term personal projects and editorial assignments. Nelson’s seminal first book, Gun Nation, was a disturbing reflection on America’s deadly love affair with the gun. Gun Nation was awarded five major international photography prizes and published worldwide. Nelson’s recent second book, Love Me, explores how a new form of globalization is taking place, where an increasingly narrow Western beauty ideal is being exported around the world like a crude universal brand. Love Me won several awards, and was nominated for the 2011 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. Nelson’s South Sudan – Birth of a Nation, was recently nominated for the Prix Pictet 2012. Nelson’s previous awards include the Visa d’Or, France; First Prize in World Press Photo Competition; and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, USA. Nelson’s work has been exhibited at Tate Britain, the ICA and the National Portrait Gallery, and is in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Nelson has had solo shows in London, Stockholm, Copenhagen and New York.