INTERVIEW

This legendary photographer’s latest book sees him passing on his experience and knowledge. He tells Steve Fairclough about the project and his approach to photography

Albert Watson

Photographer and film-maker

Born in Edinburgh in 1942, Albert Watson OBE is a celebrated photographer and film-maker. He studied graphic design and film and television before moving to the US in 1970, where he quickly started to build his career. His ‘big break’ came in 1973, with his iconic images of film director Alfred Hitchcock holding a plucked goose for Harper’s Bazaar.

Watson’s images have featured on over 100 covers of Vogue and over 40 covers of Rolling Stone. The US publication Photo District News named him as one of the 20 most influential photographers of all time, alongside the likes of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.

Watson’s work is held in major collections around the world, including in the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2010, he was awarded The Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of his contribution to the art of photography. In 2015, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an OBE for his services to photography.

www.albertwatson.net

For nigh on 50 years, the raw visual power of Albert Watson’s photography has provoked, delighted, entertained and occasionally upset people around the world. His incredibly impressive body of work stretches across many photographic genres – landscape, fashion, beauty, portrait and still-life to name a few – and he is hugely respected amongst fellow photographers. Although he’s been blind in one eye since birth – his first book was cheekily titled Cyclops – Watson has firmly established himself as one of the world’s most influential photographers, so much so that he was awarded an OBE in 2015.

Watson is now passing on his invaluable nuggets of advice and experience in a new book, Creating Photographs. The 128-page paperback book is a combination of stunning photography, anecdotes about his career, and advice across many genres and technical aspects of photography. The 20-chapter book came about as a written extension of Watson’s participation in the recent Masters of Photography series of films, which also featured fellow photographers Joel Meyerowitz, Steve McCurry and David Yarrow.