Albert Watson (born 1942 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British photographer who became famous for his fashion and portrait photography.
Watson studied graphic design at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee and film and television at the Royal College of Art in London. Although blind in one eye since birth, Watson also studied photography as part of his degree.
After graduating, Watson first moved to Los Angeles, where he began taking fashion photographs and soon attracted the attention of fashion magazines with his style. In 1976, he got his first job at Vogue and in the same year moved to New York, where he still lives today. He also lives in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Since the 70s, the photographer has shot over 250 Vogue covers. His portraits, often of rock stars, actors and other celebrities, are characterized by a manipulation of contrasts and a strong sense of composition. With his emphasis on the formal and sculptural qualities of his sitters’ bodies, Watson’s images have appeared not only in numerous American and European fashion magazines, but also in museum and gallery exhibitions.
Albert Watson has also created hundreds of campaigns for brands such as Prada, Levi’s, and Chanel, and designed numerous TV commercials and produced the photographs for countless Hollywood movie posters. In addition to commissioned work, Watson also pursues his own projects, mostly photographs of his travels around the world, such as Marrakesh and Las Vegas, for which photo books have also been published.
Albert Watson started taking Polaroid photos with his Hasselblad camera In 1972, and in 1984 with his 4×5 Horseman view camera. Since then, he has produced over 100,000 Polaroids for various projects including magazines, advertising campaigns, and all kinds of art projects, and everything in between.
For his Roids! project, Watson scanned his Polaroids at a high resolution, blowing up the scans to nearly 2.5 meters and combining old with new digital technology. The strong magnification makes the subjects look like they are being viewed under a microscope, revealing their flaws but also making their beauty and appeal physically perceptible.