Travel photographer and time-lapse artist whose work reveals the rhythm of places most people rush through.
Galician photographer Xan Padrón (Ourense, Spain, 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 (Human City, Motion City, Visions of New York), 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 the focus of solo exhibitions at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, the Delamour Gallery in Paris (France), The Pfizer Building in New York, the Sala Valente in Ourense (Spain), among other venues. Xan Padrón's artwork is held in corporate and private collections across the globe.
In 2023, Padrón was invited by the MTA Arts & Design Program to exhibit at the Bryant Park Subway station in New York City. His work has been featured in international publications such as New England Review, Die Zeit Magazine, and Harvard Business Review, as well as in the cover of academic anthologies like "Race, Class and Gender in the United States" (MacMillan, 2020) and "Personal Networks (Cambridge University Press, 2021). His Time Lapses were also selected for the Art on Link program by the City of New York. Xan Padrón's career as a photographer is deeply intertwined with his previous profession as a professional musician. For over a decade, he toured with his bass and his camera, capturing life surrounding the musicians he collaborated with. As a photographer of artists and concerts, he has worked in an official capacity for APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals, United States) and has contributed to publications such as Inside Arts and The Writer Magazine (United States).
Xan Padrón shares his life with musician, educator, and writer Cristina Pato. Since 2025, he spends his time between Galicia and New York City and has his studio at Mana Contemporary (NJ).
