Other Edens - Tapa dura

In his first body of work, Living Room, British photographer Nick Waplington found the chaotic, multidirectional, often joyous choreography in the everyday lives of two working-class families living in council houses in Notthingham. In Other Edens, his global series of panoramic images. Waplington imposes his body as a physical and metaphorical presence in the landscape. The omnipresent artist--head shaven, and naked so as to deny the possibility of locating him in time--appears in evocative scenes ranging from Naples to Easter Island, from the Peace Park in Hiroshima to the swamps of the Louisiana Bayou.

The book's text, by renowned author Marianne Wiggins, includes an interview with Waplington about his extraordinary working methods and the far-flung locations he has chosen to photograph. Invoking the spirits of Friedrich Nietzsche, Eugene lonesco, and Peter Pan, Wiggins provides a brisk and insightful counterpoint to Waplington's exceptional imagery.

Other Edens integrates personal, cultural, and comic visions to present an idiosyncratic view of a planet in flux.

Nick Waplington was born in Britain in 1965. His first book, Living Room, was published by Aperture in 1991. Living Room is an ongoing project, and he is currently working on future volumes for publication as well as a new series of photographs. Other Edens was begun in 1990 while he was living in Naples, and was completed in 1994. Waplington is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the British and European Kodak Awards, the Gandolfi Foundation Award, and the ICP Young Photographer Award for 1993.

Marianne Wiggins is the author of John Dollar, a novel, and Bet They'll Miss Us When We're Gone, a collection of stories, among other books. Her new novel, Eveless Eden, will be published by HarperCollins in 1995.