Working with a resolutely material approach - primarily without a camera - Nagel’s practice deconstructs the photographic image through performative gestures and markings around the darkroom, presented as monochromatic prints with a three-dimensional corporeality. Nagel's interests are rooted in the aesthetic sublime and the archaic stages of representation, made evident in his heavily layered, repeatedly erased photographic negatives and their subsequent inscriptions of light.
Nagel is a recipient of the American Photography 40 award (2024) and the Parsons School of Design 50% Merit Scholarship (2023). Selected group exhibitions include ‘Once Again, Many Times More’, Gallery MC (2026); ‘Privacy Index’, LUmkA Gallery (2026), ‘Contact’, The 25th Pingyao International Photography Festival (2025); ‘Andes, America’, The Corner Gallery, New York (2024). Selected press includes IMPULSE Magazine (2026), Museé Magazine (2025), Die Zeit Magazin (2023). Nagel currently lives and works in New York City.