Waplington, NickSettlement

Dominique Goblet’s selection for her storefront.

Nick Waplington is a photographer who has developed a system of his own: to be accepted, for a long period, within a family in deepest England, to the point of being forgotten by everyone. He photographs the living, the everyday in its most absurd or trivial aspects, always with a smiling look, without mockery, without derision, but not without humour. A master of the atypical and crazy framing.

Anything is possible and everything is monitored and recorded, because here on the west bank of the Jordan River, every square inch of land is known, recorded and potentially a source of conflict. Nick Waplington lived in Jerusalem between 2008 and 2013, visiting more than 350 separate Jewish settlements in the region, from populated cities like Ariel to small outposts composed of a few caravans. The title of the book, Settlement, refers to the Jewish communities built in the area of the former state of Palestine known as the West Bank, an area of about 2,173 square miles, between the Jordan River and Jerusalem. The area was occupied by Israel in 1968, in the aftermath of the Six Day War; Israel’s right to rule is not recognized by the United Nations, which considers any Israeli building in this area a violation of international law. The book examines the topography of Jewish identity in the West Bank, which is in conflict not only with the Palestinian majority but also with mainstream Israeli society: while all the settlers are Jewish and almost all are Israeli citizens, many are not from Israel. Most of the men and women photographed by Waplington are immigrants who arrived in the West Bank from the United States, South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, the former Soviet Union, and other parts of the broader Jewish diaspora. The exact number of settlements cannot be accurately determined, as construction and demolition occur regularly throughout the region. In general, however, the presence of Jewish settlers in the West Bank is well established, and their construction projects continue with the support of the State of Israel.