Nick Waplington

Over the last thirty years, UK and US-based artist Nick Waplington has documenting a diverse range of subcultures, creating an oeuvre marked by eclecticism and juxtaposition. 

Waplington’s first publication, Living Room (1991) documented the lives of friends, families, and neighbours on the Broxtowe housing estate in Nottingham, England, where Waplington spent many years making thousands of images. In 2024, previously unseen image variants and new works from his iconic series were exhibited at Hamiltons Gallery. 

Since the debut of living room, he garnered international acclaim including from John Berger and Richard Avedon. Since then, he has created recognisable, frank representations of people and their sociopolitical backgrounds ranging from a DIY, post Punk youth navigating Thatcherism, the heyday of House and rave culture in 1990s NYC or documenting the last collection of close friend Alexander McQueen at his London studio. While most renowned for his photography practice, he works extensively with other visual material such as painting, video, sculpture, and found material.

Waplington has had solo shows at the Tate Britain and The Photographers Gallery in London among other institutions. His works are part of the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum and Government Art Collection in London or the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was the recipient of the European Photo Award at the Rencontre D’Arles Photo Festival (1990), an ICP Infinity Award (1993), and he represented the UK at the 2001 Venice Biennale.