We Dance in Mysteries: The Isaac Mizrahi Pictures
Hamiltons Gallery
27 June – 23 September 2025
13 Carlos Place
London, United Kingdom
British-American photographer Nick Waplington returns to Hamiltons Gallery in London this summer with We Dance in Mysteries: The Isaac Mizrahi Pictures, capturing the creative pulse of 1990s New York through fashion and club culture, on view from June 26 to September 23, 2025. The exhibition brings together two distinct yet interconnected visual narratives: the inner workings of Isaac Mizrahi’s fashion studio in downtown Manhattan and the pulsating nightlife of New York’s early 1990s house and techno scene.
Waplington first met Mizrahi in 1989 through their mutual friend, photographer Richard Avedon. That introduction led to a three-year working relationship during which Waplington was granted intimate access to Mizrahi’s studio. His photographs document a range of moments behind the scenes, from spontaneous fittings to moments of calm between shows. Featured in these images are fashion icons such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Veronica Webb, captured in candid, transitional moments that highlight the collaborative nature of the studio’s creative process. Mizrahi’s signature style during this period, known for its clean lines and playful elegance, is visible in the atmosphere Waplington records.
At night, Waplington turned his lens toward the New York club scene, photographing legendary venues such as The Sound Factory and Save the Robots. These spaces, central to the city’s underground culture at the time, were known for their openness, musical innovation, and fluid social boundaries. His photographs from the nightlife scene contrast with the order of the fashion studio, offering a raw view into an environment where energy, identity, and freedom collide.
The decision to present both bodies of work side by side was made by the artist, who describes the pairing as a “riotous juxtaposition” that captures “the vibrancy of a vanished moment in New York’s cultural history.” The result is a portrait of a city alive with experimentation and transformation, where the divisions between art, fashion, and music were constantly dissolving.
This is not Waplington’s first engagement with the world of high fashion. In 2008 and 2009, he documented the production of Alexander McQueen’s final collection, Horn of Plenty, a body of work later exhibited at Tate Britain in 2015 under the title Working Process. His approach is grounded in immersion, and the photographs in We Dance in Mysteries reflect his characteristic proximity to the lives and environments he documents.
The exhibition does not follow a strict curatorial narrative. Instead, it allows the viewer to move fluidly between the studio and the nightclub, mirroring the artist’s own experience of moving between these two creative spheres. This lack of conventional structure invites the viewer to draw their own connections between the two visual worlds.
Following Waplington’s acclaimed 2024 exhibition Living Room at Hamiltons, We Dance in Mysteries offers another example of his ability to capture people in moments of genuine expression. The show reflects not only a specific period in New York’s cultural history but also Waplington’s enduring commitment to photographing life as it is lived—unfiltered, collaborative, and in constant motion.
