'Untitled (WDM 196)’ from the series We Dance in Mysteries, 1989-1995 by Nick Waplington
When the celebrated photographer Richard Avedon introduces you to fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, you suspect there are going to be creative fireworks.
Avedon, a recipient of the RPS Centenary Medal, must have known putting his mutual friends Nick Waplington and Mizrahi in the same room would be interesting. The result was a three-year professional and personal relationship during which Waplington went behind the scenes at Mizrahi’s studio in downtown Manhattan.
Among the models being fitted with Mizahi’s acclaimed creations were supermodels Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Veronica Webb.
The story doesn’t end there. After leaving the studio each day, the UK and US artist would photograph New York’s house and techno scene by night. Waplington’s clubbing playgrounds included the Sound Factory, Save the Robots, Area, Jackie 60 and the Limelight, long gone and part of New York’s nocturnal mythology. It was the cusp of the 1990s and fashion, music and art were fusing as never before.
Now, an exhibition at Hamiltons Gallery, London, brings together the two collections of photographs, capturing what Waplington describes as “the vibrancy of a vanished moment in New York’s cultural history”.
All images from the series We Dance in Mysteries, 1989-1995 by Nick Waplington/Hamiltons Gallery.
Nick Waplington – We Dance in Mysteries is at Hamiltons Gallery, London until 23 September 2025.
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