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 a series of street photography projects in New York City (Human City, Motion City, Visions of New York), he began his acclaimed project Time Lapse in 2011: a collection of portraits capturing 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, Benrubi Gallery in New York, Matria Gallery in Milan (Italy), Delamour Gallery in Paris (France), the Pfizer Building in New York, and Sala Valente in Ourense (Spain), among other venues. His work is held in corporate and private collections worldwide, including those of TIAA-CREF, Blackstone, Fidelity, and JPMorgan Chase.

In 2026, three of Xan Padrón’s Time Lapse works are included in Power of Words, an 88-foot installation at the Museum of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, "highlighting the power of individual and collective voices and expression”. 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 2005, he spends his time between Galicia and New York City and has his studio at Mana Contemporary (NJ).