shashasha

Nick Waplington’s “Sommat” consists of three series (“Horn Again: Unseen McQueen”, “You Should Be With Us”, and “Sommat”), each contained in the form of a zine.

For “Horn Again: Unseen McQueen”, Waplington presents previously unpublished photographs from his collaboration with the fashion designer Alexander McQueen from 2008. Commissioned by his friend McQueen, Waplington documented the designer’s creative processes behind the retrospective collection “Horn of Plenty” for over a year, offering invaluable insight into the late artist’s work and private life.

“You Should Be With Us” was created in the mid-1990s, when Waplington focused on photographing his own life and documenting Los Angeles, the stage of his iconic “Surf Riot” series, from the perspective of a young person looking for fun on the margins of society. With its impressions of raves, rap battles, wild parties and beach life, the series offers an immersive snapshot of LA’s mid-90s youth culture.

“Sommat”, the title-giving series of this collection, takes its readers on a journey through the hinterlands of New York, based loosely on Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness”. Empty urban landscapes, desolation, decline and breakdown are the main themes as we follow adventurer Waplington through the modern jungle to arrive, as if by magic, on the estuary of the Thames River, looking out into the sea, just like the protagonist in Conrad’s novel.

＊The box is slightly dented.