Albert Watson

Albert Watson – Alfred Hitchcock as door opener

Albert Watson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1942. The son of a sports teacher, he grew up in rural Penicuik, attended Waldorf School in Edinburgh and Lasswade High School in Bonnyrigg. Although Watson was born blind in one eye, he was greatly interested in the fine arts and studied graphic design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, then film and television at the Royal College of Art in London, and finally photography. He moved to the USA with his wife in 1970 where he worked initially as a junior school teacher whilst trying to establish himself as a photographer. After a number of small contracts, he received his first major shooting project in 1973 with the portrait of the director Alfred Hitchcock. He chose an original approach and showed the filmmaker holding a dead goose with a ribbon tied around its neck. This particular ‘Christmas goose’ would become one of Watson’s most famous works and decorated the cover of the Christmas edition of Harper’s Bazaar.

A wide-ranging portfolio

Albert Watson impressed not only Hitchcock with this photographic masterpiece, but also the rich, beautiful and powerful, who henceforth stood in line to be photographed by him. He produced a nude picture of the just 19-year-old Kate Moss in 1993, and photographs by Watson featured on the cover of Vogue magazine well over 100 times. As well as his comprehensive work for fashion magazines, he was involved in many large-scale advertising campaigns, photographing for Miuccia Prada, for example, for seven years, and photographing the poster motifs for major cinema blockbusters such as The Da Vinci Code, Kill Bill,or Memoirs of a Geisha. His early involvement with film remained with him as an established photographer and he directed over 100 perfectly designed commercials for television. Although Watson is especially known for his photographs of fashion and stars, his oeuvre is much broader and also includes landscape photography. This often stems from personal projects rather than commissions, such as his five-week trek across the Scottish Isle of Skye.

Photography as passion

Albert Watson studied intensely the work of other great photo artists to gain ideas and inspiration. He was particularly fascinated by German and Russian Expressionism as well as the work of Alexander Rodchencko and Brassaï. For Watson, photography is a matter of passion. Each motif receives the same attention and artistic concentration: he photographed King Mohammed VI in Morocco with the same dedication as the ordinary hotel workers where he was staying. Albert Watson has received prizes and awards for his photographic art, including a Grammy Award, the Hasselblad Master Award, and a medal from the Royal Photographic Society. Watson has published several books, most recently the two volume Strip Search in 2017 featuring photographs of Las Vegas, and his pictures have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions around the world including the renowned Museum of Modern art in New York.