Nick Waplington

Waplington was born in Aden, Yemen.{{cite web|access-date=2022-10-24|title=Nick Waplington|url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp5486/nick-waplington|website=sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk}} He traveled extensively during his childhood as his father worked as a scientist in the nuclear industry. He studied art at West Sussex College of Art & Design in Worthing, Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham and the Royal College of Art in London.

From 1984, Waplington would regularly visit his grandfather on the Broxtowe Estate in Aspley, Nottingham, where he began to photograph his immediate surroundings.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} Friends and neighbours of his family became his subject matter of choice.{{cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4705103/Keeping-it-in-the-family.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160226050644/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4705103/Keeping-it-in-the-family.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 26 February 2016 | date = 19 October 1996 | accessdate = 4 July 2017 | newspaper = The Daily Telegraph | location = London | title = Keeping it in the family}} He continued with this work on and off for the next 15 years and from it came two books (Living Room and Weddings, Parties, Anything) and numerous exhibitions.

His book Other Edens (1994) focused on environmental concerns and, although it was conceived and worked on at the same time as Living Room, was seen as a major departure in style and content. This work is global in nature and its ideas are ambiguous and multi-layered.

Waplington's work was included in the touring exhibition, The Dead, curated by Val Williams and Greg Hobson, which opened at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in 1995.{{cite web | url = http://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/profile/sfox/image/13580 | access-date = 21 January 2016 | publisher = Manchester School of Art | title = The Dead by Val Williams & Greg Hobson (1995)}}

Other bodies of his work include Safety in Numbers (1997), a bleak study of the ecstasy drug culture in the mid-1990s; The Indecisive Memento, a global road trip where the journey itself was the artwork (1999);{{cite web|title=Nothing Happens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mWIEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Nick+Waplington&pg=PA40|accessdate=29 January 2011|newspaper=Out|date=March 1999|page=40}} Truth or Consequences (2001), a pictorial game based on the history of photography using the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico as a backdrop, inspired by the rules of the 1950s television show; and You Love Life (2005), in which he uses pictures taken over a 20-year period to construct an autobiographical narrative.

Learn How to Die the Easy Way (2002), Waplington's contribution to a group exhibition in part of the Venice Biennale 2001,"[http://www.tjboulting.com/publicationspage/32/learn-how-to-die-the-easy-way Learn How to Die the Easy Way: Nick Waplington]" T J Boulting. Accessed 3 July 2017 expressed a yearning for the artistic and commercial freedom that the web might yet expose and a celebration of the dislocated reason behind conventional thoughts and media.

Waplington's graphic novel Terry Painter was made in collaboration with Miguel Calderon in 2003. This and other projects with Calderon including The Garden of Suburban Delights have been exhibited in Europe{{cite news | url = https://www.standard.co.uk/home/stop-the-funny-business-7381405.html | date = 5 July 2004 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | first = Fisun | last = Güner | newspaper = London Evening Standard | location = London | title = Stop the funny business}} and the US.

In December 2007, the project space at the Whitechapel Gallery in London showed his slide show of found internet photos, entitled You Are Only What You See.{{cite web | url = http://white.cyberporte.net/content.php?page_id=3830 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | publisher = Whitechapel Gallery | title = Press Release: Nick Waplington: 12 December 2007 – 20 January 2008}} The work was available at the time bound together in 10 publications of 100 images each, and there was a separate catalog of original photos by Waplington called Double Dactyl (2008).

Waplington worked on a major book project with the fashion designer Alexander McQueen during 2008/2009, called Working Process (2013),{{cite web | url = http://shop.tate.org.uk/exhibition-books/nick-waplingtonalexander-mcqueen-working-process/invt/16885 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | publisher = Tate | title = Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen: Working Process}}{{cite news | url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/photographer-nick-waplingtons-solo-show-at-tate-britain-1423763125 | date = 12 February 2015 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | first = Laurence | last = Lowe | publisher = The Wall Street Journal | title = Photographer Nick Waplington's Solo Show at Tate Britain}}{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/08/why-mad-again-about-alexander-mcqueen-nick-waplington-savage-beauty | date = 8 February 2015| accessdate = 3 July 2017 | first = Tim | last = Lewis | newspaper = The Guardian | location = London | title = Why we're all still mad about Alexander McQueen}} the title refers to both McQueen's working process as a fashion designer and Waplington's working process as an artist making photo books. In March 2015{{cite web | url = http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/nick-waplingtonalexander-mcqueen-working-process | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | publisher = Tate | title = Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen: Working Process}} this project became the first one-person exhibition by a British photographer in the main exhibition space at Tate Britain in London.{{cite web | url = http://bpb.org.uk/2014/collaborators/nick-waplington/ | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | publisher = Brighton Photo Biennial | title = Nick Waplington - Brighton Photo Biennial 2014}}

In 2011 Waplington self-published Lackadaisical, using a print on demand service, his response to increasingly expensive photobooks. It was later edited and expanded in the form of another edition called Extrapolations.

While continuing to make photographic works Waplington has since 2010 devoted most of his time to his practice as a painter.{{cite news|accessdate=2018-09-08|title=A Legendary Photographer (and McQueen Collaborator) Debuts Paintings|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/t-magazine/art/nick-waplington-paintings-fashion-photographer-mcqueen.html|newspaper=The New York Times}}

Waplington participated in the photography collective This Place, founded by Frédéric Brenner,{{cite news|last1=Kershner|first1=Isabel|title=Top Photographers Try Looking at Israel From New Angles|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/middleeast/photography-project-seeks-new-angles-on-israel.html|work=The New York Times|accessdate=13 June 2014}} contributing the book Settlement (2014), a study of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank, portrait and landscape photographs taken with a large format camera.{{cite news|last1=Hodges|first1=Michael|title=Snapshots of Israel|url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/1f4eed00-4b53-11e1-a325-00144feabdc0.html#axzz33bB3slRr|work=Financial Times|accessdate=13 June 2014}}

• Living Room.
• Manchester: Cornerhouse, 1991.
• New York: Aperture, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0893814816}}.
• Other Edens. New York: Aperture, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0893815875}}. Marianne Wiggins contributes an introduction.
• Weddings, Parties, Anything. Irvine Welsh contributes an essay.
• Weddings, Parties, Anything. New York: Aperture, 1996. UK edition.
• The Wedding. New York: Aperture, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0893816070}}. US edition.
• Safety in Numbers.
• London: Booth Clibborn, 1997.
• London: Booth Clibborn, 2002. {{ISBN|978-1861540966}}.
• The Indecisive Memento. London: Booth Clibborn, 1999. {{ISBN|978-1861541222}}.
• Truth or Consequences. London: Phaidon, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0714840543}}.
• Learn how to die the easy way. London: Trolley, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0954207977}}. Waplington's contribution to a group exhibition at Venice Biennale in 2001.
• Terry Painter. Self-published, 2003. Graphic novel, art directed, story and concept by Waplington and Miguel Calderon and illustration by Domingo & Celilia.
• You Love Life. London: Trolley, 2005. {{ISBN|978-1904563426}}.
• Double Dactyl. London: Trolley, 2008. {{ISBN|978-1904563679}}.
• Working Process. New York: Damiani, 2013. {{ISBN|978-88-6208-295-2}}.
• Surf Riot. New York: Little Big Man, 2011. Edition of 300 copies.
• Lackadaisical. New York: self-published, 2011. Edition of 100 copies.
• Second expanded edition. New York: self-published, 2011. Edition of 100 copies.
• Extrapolations. New York: self-published, 2011. Edition of 100 copies.
• The Patriarch's Wardrobe. Melbourne: PAMBook, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0980369663}}.
• Settlement. London: Mack, 2014. {{ISBN|9781907946523}}.
• Made Glorious Summer. Tokyo: Powershovel, 2014. {{ISBN|978-4-9902101-7-5}}. 3 volumes and 1 insert. Edition of 500 copies.
• Living Room Work Prints. New York: Little Big Man, 2015. Edition of 700 copies.
• Cunt Away. London: Morel Books. {{ISBN|978-1907071485}}. Irvine Welsh contributes an essay. Edition of 200 Copies
• We Live As We Dream, Alone. London: Morel, 2016. Edition of 500 copies.
• Neither A Salt Spring Nor A Horse. New York: Pacific, 2018. Edition of 400 copies
• Hackney Riviera. Jesus Blue, 2019.{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-20|title=Nick Waplington distills moments of summertime paradise in Hackney|url=https://www.creativereview.co.uk/nick-waplington-hackney-riviera/|date=15 October 2019}}{{cite web|first1=Ryan|last1=White|accessdate=2021-04-20|title=photography from a long, hot summer in london|url=https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/kz4n3w/photography-hackney-riviera-nick-waplington-london|date=1 October 2019}}{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-20|title=Nick Waplington's Hackney Riviera|url=https://www.1854.photography/2019/11/nick-waplingtons-hackney-riviera/|website=www.1854.photography}}{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-20|title=The big picture: swimmers on the Hackney Riviera|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/29/the-big-picture-nick-waplington-hackney-riviera|date=29 September 2019|website=The Guardian}}{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-20|title=Remembering last summer with Nick Waplington|url=https://theface.com/culture/nick-waplington-hackney-riviera-photography-book|website=The Face}}
• The Search for a Superior Moral Justification for Selfishness. London: Morel, 2019.
• Anaglypta 1980–2020. Self-published / Jesus Blue, 2020. {{ISBN|978-1-8380354-9-5}}. Edition of 1000 copies.
• Comprehensive. Phaidon Press, 2023. {{ISBN|1838666214}}.

• A Good Man's Grave Is His Sabbath. Deadbeat Club 32. Deadbeat Club/Little Big Man, 2015. Edition of 400 copies.
• Sesquipedalian. Geneva: Innen, 2017. Edition of 500 copies.
• Thomas Floored. Self Published: JesusBlue Books, 2020 Edition of 25 copies.
• SOMMAT. London & New York: JesusBlue Books / 1972, 2021. Edition of 650 copies.

• Working Process. Bologna, Italy: Damiani, 2013. Edited by Alexander McQueen. {{ISBN|9788862082952}}. With a foreword by Susannah Frankel.

• Living Room, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 1990–1991.{{cite web | url = http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/images/1971_2016_ExhHistory_5835d31dd133f.pdf | title = Exhibition History, 1971 - Present | publisher = The Photographers' Gallery | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20170331024907/http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/images/1971_2016_ExhHistory_5835d31dd133f.pdf | archivedate = 31 March 2017}}
• Living Room, and Circles of Civilization, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, 1992.{{cite web | url = http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/1992/529.html | access-date = 4 July 2017 | publisher = Philadelphia Museum of Art | title = Photographs by Nick Waplington: The "Living Room" and "Circles of Civilization" Series}}
• Other Edens, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 1994–1995.
• Weddings, Parties, Anything, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford, UK, 1996.
• You Are Only What You See and Double Dactyl, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2007.{{cite news | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/nick-waplington-whitechapel-art-gallery-london-766644.html | date = 23 December 2007 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | first = Charles | last = Darwent | newspaper = The Independent | location = London | title = Nick Waplington, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London}}{{cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3675671/Nick-Waplington.html?image=3 | date = 10 December 2007 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | newspaper = The Daily Telegraph | location = London | title = Nick Waplington}}
• Working Process, Tate Britain, London, 2015.

• The Dead, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1995. Curated by Val Williams and Greg Hobson. Work by various photographers including Waplington, Nobuyoshi Araki, Krass Clement, Donigan Cumming, Hans Danuser, Andres Serrano.
• Learn How to Die the Easy Way, Venice Biennale, 2001.
• This Place, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York City, 2016. Photographs by Waplington, Frédéric Brenner, Wendy Ewald, Martin Kollar, Josef Koudelka, Jungjin Lee, Gilles Peress, Fazal Sheikh, Stephen Shore, Rosalind Fox Solomon, Thomas Struth, and Jeff Wall.{{cite web | url = https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/this_place | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | publisher = Brooklyn Museum | title = This Place}}{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/arts/design/for-12-photographers-an-anxious-gaze-on-israel-and-the-west-bank.html | date = 11 February 2016 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | first = Arthur | last = Lubow | newspaper = The New York Times | title = For 12 Photographers, an Anxious Gaze on Israel and the West Bank}}{{cite news | url = http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/israel-and-the-west-bank-through-the-eyes-of-a-dozen-visitors | date = 16 March 2016 | accessdate = 3 July 2017 | first = Vince | last = Aletti | authorlink = Vince Aletti | newspaper = The New Yorker | title = Israel and the West Bank, Through the Eyes of a Dozen Visitors}}{{cite news | url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-weinreich/this-place-at-the-brookly_b_9266554.html | date = 18 February 2017 | accessdate = 3 July 2017| first = Regina | last = Weinreich | work = The Huffington Post | title = 'This Place' at the Brooklyn Museum: Outsiders Photograph Israel}}
• A Handful of Dust, Le Bal, Paris, October 2015 – January 2016;{{cite web | url = http://en.le-bal.com/fr/mh/les-expositions/a-handful-of-dust/ | accessdate = 23 October 2015 | publisher = Le Bal | title = A Handful of Dust - From the Cosmic to the Domestic}} Whitechapel Gallery, London, June–September 2017.{{cite web | url = http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/a-handful-of-dust/ | accessdate = 17 October 2017 | publisher = Whitechapel Gallery | title = A Handful of Dust: Photography after Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp}}{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jun/08/a-handful-of-dust-whitechapel-photographers-show | date = 8 June 2017 | accessdate = 17 October 2017 | first = Sean | last = O'Hagan | authorlink = Sean O'Hagan (journalist) | work = The Guardian| location = London | title = Slain dictators and cities under attack: the photographers telling stories through dust}} Curated by David Campany.

• 1993: Infinity Award: Young Photographer, International Center of Photography, New York City"[https://www.icp.org/news/1993-infinity-award-young-photographer 1993 Infinity Award: Young Photographer]" International Center of Photography. Accessed 3 July 2017

Waplington's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, UK{{cite news | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theyll-take-the-low-road-1303675.html | date = 6 April 1996 | accessdate = 3 November 2017 | first = Tim | last = Hilton | newspaper = The Independent | location = London | title = They'll take the low road}}
• Government Art Collection, London: 1 print{{cite web | url = http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/artist.aspx?id=13456 | access-date = 3 July 2017 | publisher = Government Art Collection | title = 1 works found for Nick Waplington}}
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City{{cite web | url = https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/alexander-mcqueen-nick-waplington-tate | date = 28 February 2015 | access-date = 1 November 2017 | first = Natalia | last = Rachlin | publisher = Architectural Digest | title = Nick Waplington's Photographs of the Late Fashion Designer Alexander McQueen Are on Display at the Tate Britain}}{{Better source|date=October 2017}}
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City{{cite web | url = http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/talk/nick-waplington-conversation | access-date = 4 October 2017 | publisher = Tate | title = Nick Waplington in conversation}}
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia: 5 prints{{cite web | url = https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Search.cfm?CREIRN=21343&ORDER_SELECT=1&VIEW_SELECT=4 | access-date = 4 October 2017 | publisher = National Gallery of Australia | title = 5 Items found}}
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA: 4 prints{{cite web | url = http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/results.html?searchTxt=&bSuggest=1&searchNameID=19140 | access-date = 4 July 2017 | publisher = Philadelphia Museum of Art | title = Artist/Maker's Name: Nick Waplington}}
• Royal Library, Denmark{{cite web | url = http://wayback-01.kb.dk/wayback/20100504123749/http://www2.kb.dk/fotomuseum/fot-mus/udlfot/1950.htm | access-date = 17 October 2017 | publisher = Royal Library, Denmark | title = Udenlandsk fotografi}}{{cite web | url = http://www.kb.dk/export/sites/kb_dk/da/kb/aarsberetning/aarsberetninger/2007.pdf | access-date = 17 October 2017 | publisher = Royal Library, Denmark | title = Årsberetning 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110918202934/http://www.kb.dk/export/sites/kb_dk/da/kb/aarsberetning/aarsberetninger/2007.pdf | archive-date = 18 September 2011 | url-status = dead }}
• Science Museum Group, UK: 2 prints and a book (as of 24 October 2022)
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 14 pieces{{cite web | url = https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?listing_type=&offset=0&limit=15&narrow=&extrasearch=&q=Nick+Waplington | access-date = 3 July 2017 | publisher = Victoria and Albert Museum | title = You searched for: Nick Waplington}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{official website|nickwaplington.org}}
• [http://nickwaplington.co.uk Waplington's "Diary" site]

{{Authority control (arts)}}

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Category:1965 births

Category:Living people

Category:Photographers from Sussex

Category:Alumni of Nottingham Trent University