Nigel Shafran

Much of Nigel Shafran's work seems to belong to the great tradition, one more highly developed in painting than in photography, of still life. He concentrates on low-key, undramatic details of everyday domestic life, and invites us to look at them afresh, to discover significance, a reassuring sense of continuity, and often surprising beauty.

Washing Up (2000) comprised more than 170 images of the dishes washed and left to dry in his own and others' kitchens; since then, he has made a series inside the charity shops that spring up in most high streets – objects discarded and perhaps about to be recycled - and another of street markets.

These formally composed black-and-white photographs of his father's 'office', apparently used as a dumping ground for discarded domestic objects, are unexpectedly poignant; the colour photograph of a storage wall in Jill and Terry's garage has the formal structure and subtle colours of an abstract painting.

Sophie Spencer -Wood
Family [Photographers photograph their families]
Phaidon



Brett Rogers, Reality Check
David Chandler, Photoworks
Charlotte Cotton, The Photograph as Contemporary Art
Joanna Lowry, An Imaginary Space
Liz Jobey, Domestic Harmony
Celia Davies, Compost Pictures


Tate Britain, How we are: Photographing Britain
Interview with Paul Elliman, Fig-1
Charlotte Cotton, Taka Ishii
Sophie Spencer-Wood, Family
Interview with Charlotte Cotton, edited photographs
Val Williams, edited photographs