ABOUT

In the world of fashion, 'The well' is industry terminology for the main image section of a magazine. For influential British photographer Nigel Shafran, this space has served as a place for unexpected creativity, subversive critique and wry commentary. “This isn’t a book of best pictures, it’s more of a tight edit than that. It’s a book about the ideas that always end up somewhere in my work, I guess… Windows, shopping, making decisions and consuming…” So goes the opening phrase of Nigel Shafran’s new book The Well, penned by the British photographer himself.

Shafran’s relationship with the world of commercial photography begins in the mid-1980s as a teenager, continuing through to the iconic magazine years of i-D and The Face, and into a recent resurgence in his idiosyncratic, unpretentious approach to the fashion shoot within the pages of Vogue and more. Only recently did Shafran — who is known for his delicate, personal approach of weaving together converging photographic narratives — begin to understand his continuous engagement with the commercial world as a project in itself. The Well is a space to critique and reflect the worlds of fashion from the inside, bringing his trademark simplicity and capacity to disarm the viewer into this charged, complicated world.