Nigel Shafran work includes subjects such as the washing up, his girlfriend Ruth, his father’s office and high-street charity shops. Shafran likes things how they are. His photographs often appear incidental but are in fact meticulously observed and composed. Using only available and natural light he makes intimate portraits of people and places familiar and local. Two commissions – for the V&A and Rachel Whiteread – have allowed him to further explore ideas of architecture and domesticity. In his work the mundane, the everyday and the overlooked take centre-stage, as luminous still lifes that celebrate the fragile and the temporal.

Shafran has recently been included in the following exhibitions: Reality Check, Recent Developments in British Photography and Video, organised by The Photographer’s Gallery and the British Council at Wharf Rd; Reviewing Landscape Photographs of Contemporary England, artandphotographs ltd, London, October 2002 and The Spectator, Salzburg, Austria organised by the British Council. He will be participating in Fourth Sex: The Extreme People of Adolescence, curated by Francesco Bonami & Raf Simons at Stazione Leopolda, Italy in January 2003.

For his first solo show at MW projects Shafran will be selecting work from the series listed below.

Rachel’s Book, 2002
The book has been assembled by Rachel Whiteread in collaboration with Shafran and design group North as a meditation on ideas of home. Shafran’s images include a series of empty urban parks at dusk; a group of images of garages and parking spaces taken in north London suburbs which were recently exhibited at artandphotographs, London; and staircases in domestic settings.

Stuff 2002
A series of images of street markets, high street charity shops, car boot sales and a recycling compound. The reason he was drawn to photographing these subjects was because ‘the shop doesn’t choose the goods, the goods choose the shop.’
Exhibited at Reality Check, Recent Developments in British Photography and Video, at Wharf Rd, organised by The Photographer’s Gallery and the British Council.

Washing Up 2000
Over the course of a year Shafran took a total of 170 images documenting his and his partner’s washing up. The images were mostly taken at home but also abroad or on holiday. Each image is titled by the description Shafran noted on the back of a Polaroid of what they had eaten and where.
Exhibited at Washing Up 2000, Week 25, Fig-1, London 2001; Nigel Shafran, 1992 – 2000, Taka Ishi Gallery, Japan 2000; Reality Check, Recent Developments in British Photography and Video, organised by The Photographer’s Gallery and the British Council at Wharf Rd.

Portfolio of the Victoria and Albert museum commissioned by the museum in 1998
A series of photographs documenting the architecture, workspaces and employees of the museum, including images such as After Gillian Varley’s leaving Party and the Handrail of the Henry Cole Wing.
Exhibited at the V&A in 1999.

Dad’s Office, 1996-1998
Self-published book of photographs taken over a period of two years of his father’s office.
Exhibited at Blue Suburban Skies, The Photographer’s Gallery, 1999; Nigel Shafran, 1992-2000, Taka Ishi Gallery, Japan 2000; The Spectator, Salzburg, Austria organised by the British Council, July 2002.

Ruthbook, 1992-1995
Self-published book documenting the beginnings of a relationship.
Exhibited in Nigel Shafran, 1992-2000, Taka Ishi Gallery, Japan 2000; and Breathless! Photography and Time, The Canon Photography Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2000.

Teenage Precinct Shoppers, 1990
Set of photographs taken at Ilford Shopping Precinct with Melanie Ward of local teenagers.
Exhibited in Look at me, curated by the British Council, Kunsthalle, Rotterdam, Holland, 1998; and Fourth Sex: The Extreme People of Adolescence, curated by Francesco Bonami & Raf Simons, Stazione Leopolda, Italy in January 2003.