Waplington, Nick 1965-

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WAPLINGTON, Nick 1965-

PERSONAL: Born July 25, 1965, in Scunthorpe, England. Education: Trent Polytechnic, B.A., 1989; Royal College of Art, M.A. (with distinction), 1992.

ADDRESSES: Home—69A Hartham Road, Islington, London N7 9JJ, England.

CAREER: Photographer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Kodak British and European Awards, 1990; EC Eurocreation Bursary (Naples, Italy), 1991; ICP New York Young Photographers' Award, 1993.

WRITINGS:

Living Room, text by John Berger and Richard Avedon, Aperture (New York, NY), 1991.

Other Edens, Aperture (New York, NY), 1994.

The Wedding: New Pictures from the Continuing "Living Room" Series, text by Irvine Walsh, Aperture (New York, NY), 1996.

Truth or Consequences: A Personal History of American Photography from the Last Century, Phaidon Press (London, England), 2001.

Learn How to Die the Easy Way, 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Over about four years, from 1986, photographer Nick Waplington got to know two working-class families in Nottingham, England. In Living Room, Waplington takes the viewer inside their homes and their lives, and "gives us fleshy, boisterous bodies who look like they've just walked out of a pub in some socially conscious English movie," wrote Booklist reviewer Ray Olson. But while those movies tend to be in serious black-and-white, added Olson, "these images are in colors every bit as bouncy and vital as the people in them." For Interview reviewer Kelly Walsh, this vitality is what makes the photos "so much like family: loud, chaotic, messy, and all in it together."

Waplington's next project was rather different, and more self-consciously artistic. In Other Edens he superimposes his own body over evocative panoramas, including Naples, Easter Island, Hiroshima's Peace Park. For New York Times Magazine contributor Herbert Muschamp, the title "suggests that this is a genesis story and Waplington a newborn Adam. Actually, he stands in for everyone who fears that this century has given birth to a civilization that even its makers can't be bothered to comprehend."

A few years later, Waplington returned to his Nottingham friends, this time to cover a festive event. The Wedding: New Pictures from the Continuing "LivingRoom" Series celebrates the marriage of Janice, one of the people featured in Living Room. "It isn't a stylish marriage, and the reception features lager, not champagne, but it radiates happiness," a Booklist reviewer noted. Similarly, People reviewer Eric Levin warned "neatniks" and "Martha Stewartites" about the "cluttered, garish living rooms" captured in the photos. Noting the size of the bride and the fact that the groom was a black man, Levin added, "The photos are socioeconomic litmus tests, bound to measure one's reactions to everything from obesity to interracial marriage to—reaching for a neutral term—flexible standards of décor and decorum." Artforum International contributor Carol Squiers felt "The middle-class urbanites who consume photography books will probably have more ambivalent responses to these families than the simple admiration and love Waplington feels for them." Others had a different reaction. "Even stuffy readers will have a great time at this wedding," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. And New York Times reviewer Christine Schwartz-Hartley concluded, "Always, Mr. Waplington celebrates the beauty of the ordinary, and his images constitute an intense representation of the power of love."

Changing direction again, Waplington went west for his next photography book. In Truth or Consequences: A Personal History of American Photography from the Last Century, Waplington records his impression of the small New Mexican town that renamed itself after the hit TV show in the 1950s, as a publicity stunt. "The photographs are no more interesting for that fact . . . but many of them are interesting enough on their own—images of South-western backwater," wrote Times Literary Supplement contributor Benjamin Markovits. An introduction by John Slyce puts the photographs in a wider context, pointing out similarities with the works of other twentieth-century photographers.