The Fahey/Klein gallery in Los Angeles devotes a retrospective, the first in thirty years, to this iconic photographer and portraitist in a constellation of legendary images, personal archives, Polaroids and previously unpublished works.

"Find the beauty that others don't see, and capture it in your camera." Galerie Fahey/Klein continues to delight us with its new exhibition devoted to Albert Watson (1942-), one of the most influential masters of photography along with Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. Through a rich body of work, the Californian institution traces the legacy of this Scottish legend, who began his career in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Since then, most of his images have become icons engraved in the collective memory. Albert Watson has helped shape the history of the medium, building his own distinctive cross-section of fashion, art and celebrity portraiture, with stagings that are both narrative and aesthetically pleasing.

AN UNRIVALLED CATALOG

His work includes portraits of Alfred Hitchcock, which made him famous in 1973, as well as Steve Jobs, Jack Nicholson, Keith Richards, David Bowie and supermodels such as Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington. He has also worked beyond the boundaries of style, capturing desert landscapes of Las Vegas, neon-lit cities, artifacts from Tutankhamun...
With the title "No Idle View", this first retrospective highlights the plurality and diversity of Albert Watson's portfolio. His distinctive style combines a textured approach, a graphic touch and a cinematic sensibility. Elements he has always drawn from his studies of graphic design and film.
The result is a body of work spanning more than fifty years of career that shines beyond genres, eras and the framework in which it seems to exist. "Many of my pictures are confrontational and controlled; they are based neither on observation nor voyeurism. My aim is to create something strong, powerful, memorable, interesting and technically correct, not lazy," he explains in the gallery's press release.

BETWEEN CHIAROSCURO, INTENSITY AND POETRY

But Albert Watson's greatness also and above all stems from his disability, which he turned into a photographic strength. Blind in one eye from birth, he championed "contrasts and delicate compositions, using the physical features of the human body to create formal, sculptural images".
The exhibition at Galerie Fahey/Klein thus restores the glory of this eclectic virtuoso of visual art. With over 100 covers for Vogue to his credit, Albert Watson has been published in a plethora of magazines, from Rolling Stone to Time Magazine to Harper's Bazaar. He has also released several monographs, including Cyclops (1994), Kaos (2017) and Creating Photographs (2021). In Albert Watson, Une vision de la photographie (Éd. Eyrolles, 2021), taken from one of his masterclasses, he reveals the secrets behind the making of his most striking images.
While his work has joined the collections of major museum institutions, the Los Angeles gallery also recalls that Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2015 for his lifelong contribution to the art of photography.

" ALBERT WATSON: NO IDLE VIEW" FAHEY/KLEIN GALLERY
148 NORTH LA BREA AVENUE, LOS ANGELES (USA)
UNTIL JANUARY 11, 2025
FAHEYKLEINGALLERY.COM