Albert Watson: No Idle View
The Fahey/Klein Gallery is pleased to present No Idle View, Albert Watson’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in thirty years. To celebrate the storied legacy of acclaimed photographer Albert Watson, a career that began in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, this retrospective exhibition explores Watson’s rich body of work. The photographs on view showcase his distinctive style that is deeply rooted in cinematic sensibility and brings to life moments of stillness and drama that feel as if they exist beyond the frame. No Idle View will be a combination of well-known images, vintage prints, Polaroids, and previously unexhibited works.
“A lot of my pictures are confrontational and controlled; they’re not observational or voyeuristic. I aim to create something that is strong, powerful, memorable, interesting and technically correct, not lazy.”
– Albert Watson
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Albert Watson studied graphic design & film and credits his success as a photographer to this broad visual education. His photographic career began in 1970 after moving to Los Angeles where he shot beauty advertisements and fashion photography before earning wider acclaim for his celebrity portraits. His distinctive style captured the eye of many American and European fashion magazines. Watson has shot over 100 covers for Vogue, in addition to publishing images in countless publications, from Rolling Stone to TIME Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. Though blind in one eye since birth, Watson is known for his masterful manipulation of contrasts and delicate compositions. He uses the physical traits of the human body to create formal and sculptural images.
Albert Watson has been named one of the 20 most influential photographers of all time along with other luminaries of the medium like Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. His photographs are held in collections of important museums such as the National Portrait Gallery, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Lucie Award, a Grammy Award, and the Centenary Medal, a lifetime achievement award from the Royal Photographic Society. In 2015, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his lifetime contribution to the art of photography. He has also published many books and catalogues, notably the acclaimed monographs Cyclops (1994) and Kaos (2017) – and most recently Creating Photograph (2021). Watson lives and works in New York.