Nick Waplington; Truth or Consequences

Description

Nick Waplington has taken photographs in and around Truth or Consequences, a small town situated in New Mexico, for nearly ten years. Typical and unremarkable in many ways, the town's extraordinary name derives from a radio quiz show to which the town and its residents have been inextricably linked ever since the show came to town in 1950. Waplington shows us the town behind the name, the lives of its people and the landscape they live in while at the same time constructing a personal tribute to American photography, paying homage to the great pioneers of the genre like Edward Weston and Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander and Paul Strand.

Truth or Consequences is Nick Waplington's sixth book. Previous work has included his celebrated photographic portrait of a family in Leeds, Living Room and a study of the homogenisation of youth culture in the West, Safety In Numbers. He is the recipient of numerous photographic prizes including the British and European Kodak Awards, and the ICP Young Photographer Award 1993 for his Living Room series. More recently, Nick Waplington has exhibited at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York in May 2001 for his series of conceptual photography based on Internet websites. This same body of work has been chosen for inclusion in the Venice Bienal this year and has been tipped for winning a prize.

'As the subject of photographer Nick Waplington's captivating lens, the town's name takes on a profundity that defies its frivolous origin. His portraits and landscape shots follow the bizarre yet somehow ordinary lives of the inhabitants of "T or C", as well as paying homage to the great pioneers of American photography such as Edward Weston and Walker Evans. These stunning yet commonplace photographs were shot over a period of ten years, during which Waplington revisited the town many times. Drawn together in a book for Phaidon, 'Truth or Consequences' has been hailed as his most extensive and enthralling study since 'Living Room' ...' Dazed and Confused 'The book captures some genuinely affecting moments ... while also offering generous tributes to past masters of American photography.' Time Out 'Nick Waplington has captured the combined weirdness and ordinariness of the everyday, the disused and the down-at-heel. Like a wide-screen road-movie, images of American popular culture collide.' Evening Standard