Nadel majored in
anthropology at the
University of Chicago and graduated in 1990.
Stern, Nadel said in 2010, "If you have a bunch of great pictures but they don't communicate the complexity and the important aspects of what you’re documenting, then what you have are powerful emotional photographs, but they won't offer you the possibility for education." Subjects include a Cambodian boy, a group of Nigerian men wearing
gas masks and gloves and carrying spraying equipment, and a magnified
mosquito's foot. Nadel also invited the Brazilian artist Kako to create a
graphic novel depicting the process by which the disease is transmitted. In 2017 Nadel's photographs of the
Everglades, produced as part of a collaboration with the anthropologist Jessica Cattelino, were exhibited in
Everglades National Park. In 2018 Nadel became that year's
artist in residence at
Fermilab, where his work was exhibited in 2019. ==Awards==