WAPLINGTON, YOU LOVE LIFE - Tapa dura

"Art flies around truth, but with the definite intention of not getting burnt. Its capacity lies in finding in the dark void a place where the beam of light can be intensely caught, without this having been perceptible before" Franz Kafka "You love life as much as we love death". This statement was posted on a website sympathetic to the aims of Al-Qaeda in response to the Madrid train bombings of 2003. It was then re-interpreted by the president of the USA a couple of months later as: "You choose life while we choose death" I couldn't get these two statements out of my head and the subtle but profound differences which exist between them. It was this dichotomy and it's many possible interpretations that provided me with the inspiration to produce this work, a work about life and the choices I have made and the choices which have been made on my behalf. With these statements as my guide I have put together a book that does not answer any of these questions but enabled my understanding of why I took these pictures in the first place to expand. It is, I hope, an uplifting piece of work which tracks my last twenty or so years from when I first picked up a camera until the present day."Nick Waplington, April 2005.

Nick Waplington has exhibited internationally including at Deitch Projects, New York, The Philadelphia Mudeum of Modern Art and the 2001 Venice Biennale. He lives and works in London.