Nigel Shafran

RuthBook – Limited edition book

This 1995 booklet is the earliest publication I have from one of my favorite photographers Nigel Shafran. Nigel is well known in many circles, his work quite at home in magazines or on gallery walls. Here is interesting article from the Guardian.

RuthBook is, as Nigel says in the only text in the book, “A chronological set of photographs taken between June 1992 and January 1995.”  One can’t help but wonder if these dates are on any significance or if they are of chance. We see Ruth and fragments of the photographer’s life together with her. 

It is 32 pages with 14 color and b/w images and the title text on the cover is hand-written in pencil, pressed into the cover in  almost childlike block letters. It is limited to an edition of 600.

In his latest book, Flowers for_______ published by Koenig Books, we see that Ruth and Nigel now have a son and the space and rooms that were once Ruth’s and Nigel’s alone have been infiltrated with all things colored, wheeled, padded, brightly painted and squeeky. The laundry pile is bigger, the clutter has exploded and even the kitchen is being enlarged.

Nigel Shafran, Flowers For______

With this new book, the RuthBook takes on an even greater depth because it becomes part of an entire, ongoing body of work, documenting a life together that Ruth, in 1995 probably couldn’t imgine, but now makes perfect sense, at least we hope so.

2007

1994

You will have a hard time finding RuthBook but you can get all of the info here on Nigel’s homepage, where you can also find 3 other publications, one of which I will talk about soon.