Nick Waplington’s photographs of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen are on display at the Tate Britain.
The Tate show features a selection of 100 images (many never exhibited before) by the New York and London–based photographer Nick Waplington, whose work usually focuses on issues of class, conflict, and identity, and appears in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim and MoMA. The photographs reveal an intimate view of the intense creative journey behind what would become McQueen’s final Autumn/Winter collection, titled “The Horn of Plenty,” in 2009.
The exhibition includes small, candid images as well as more formal, large-format photographs that document the collection from its earliest days at McQueen’s London studio to its debut on the Paris runway. Waplington was given unprecedented access to McQueen and his surroundings in the lead-up to his final show, as the two artists collaborated on a photobook, published in 2013, that would juxtapose Waplington’s unforgiving shots of landfills and recycling plants with the dark artistry and deconstructive elements of McQueen’s designs.
Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen: Working Process” runs through May 17, 2015 at the Tate Britain, Millbank, London; tate.org.uk
