{"id":318319,"date":"2026-02-03T16:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/318319\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T16:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:48:09","slug":"albert-watsons-legendary-photos-of-cultural-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/318319\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Watson\u2019s Legendary Photos of Cultural Icons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ASteve Jobs, Cupertino, California, 2006 \u00a9 Albert Watson, 2025 <\/p>\n

Albert Watson is one of photography\u2019s great image-makers. For more than five decades, his work has moved effortlessly between portraiture, fashion, fine art, and landscape. His work has now been brought together in a definitive monograph titled Albert Watson. Kaos. <\/p>\n

From iconic portraits of Steve Jobs, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Kate Moss, Jack Nicholson, and Uma Thurman to stark landscapes, still lifes, and nudes, Watson\u2019s photographs resist easy categorization. <\/p>\n

\"AKeith Richards, New York City, 1988 \u00a9 Albert Watson, 2025 \"ACindy Sherman, Polaroid, New York City, 1994 \u00a9 Albert Watson, 2025 \"AMonkey with Gun, New York City, 1992, \u00a9 Albert Watson, 2025 <\/p>\n

Published by Taschen,<\/a> the book presents a carefully curated overview of Watson\u2019s work to date, spanning more than 55 years. Celebrities, statesmen, supermodels, and strangers appear side by side, moving through neon-lit cities, quiet backstreets, and elemental landscapes.<\/p>\n

The collection opens with Watson\u2019s breakthrough portrait of Alfred Hitchcock, shot for the Christmas 1973 issue of Harper\u2019s Bazaar, an image that announced a new, unmistakable voice in photography. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice for me to have Hitchcock as a subject because I was just out of film school, and I was very excited to do the project as this was a very nice commission,\u201d Watson told PetaPixel<\/a> in 2023. <\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, they wanted Hitchcock, a gourmet chef, to hold the cooked goose on a plate, and I said it was better to hold the goose [by the neck] before cooking as though he strangled the goose.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AJack Nicholson, Aspen, Colorado, 1981 \u00a9 Albert Watson, 2025 \"TwoTree, Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye, Scotland, 2013 \u00a9 Albert Watson, 2025 \"Side-by-sideFront cover <\/p>\n

Arguably, Watson\u2019s most famous photo is of Steve Jobs, which wound up being used on the front cover of Walter Isaacson\u2019s biography of the former Apple CEO. <\/p>\n

Watson told PetaPixel<\/a> the story behind the famous 2006 photo, which he shot on a Horseman 4\u00d75 large format camera. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe PR guy came and said to me \u2018Thank you for being here\u2026 Steve hates photographers, he hates having his picture taken, really he doesn\u2019t like the experience at all, and today he\u2019s not in the best of moods,’\u201d Watson recalled. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I told the PR guy there\u2019s nothing I can do about that if Steve Jobs is like this. I\u2019m here to photograph him. But in those five minutes I spoke, I suddenly got an idea, and when Steve arrived, I said to him, \u2018I have good news for you\u2026I only need you for 30 minutes, not one hour.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe smiled and said, \u2018Fantastic, I\u2019m so busy. Is that enough time?\u2019 I said \u2018Yes,\u2019 and he got onto the set. But then he was astonished that I was still shooting film because I had a 4\u00d75 camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018You\u2019re still shooting film? I said, \u2018Because I don\u2019t think digital is quite perfect yet,\u2019 and he pointed his finger at me and said, \u2018I agree with you\u2026but we will get there, you know, and soon digital will have better quality than film.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked very quickly. I knew exactly what I would do, a change of lens, and so on, and the shooting went very smoothly. He was in a good mood, and at 9.30, I did a few situations with him close-up. The direction I gave him for the close-up was very simple, as I had it planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Just imagine you are across the table from a lot of people who disagree with you, but [you know] you\u2019re right.\u2019 He said, \u2018Well, that\u2019s very easy for me because I do that every day. People are always disagreeing with me. I can do that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a very strong, determined look on his face, and because of the time thing, I think, he was happy. We finished just after 9.30, and as he left, he saw the Polaroid I had taken on the 4\u00d75 camera. He said, \u2018That\u2019s maybe the best picture ever of me,\u2019 [and requested the print].<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was just being nice and polite because I finished the shooting quickly. But a few years later, when he died, Apple requested that image of him and said that the Polaroid had always been on his desk. They used that as his memorial shot, which was later on the book\u2019s cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albert Watson. Kaos<\/a> is accompanied by an essay from Philippe Garner, former Head of Photographs at Christie\u2019s, alongside extensive quotations from Watson and dozens of previously unpublished Polaroids from his personal archive. <\/p>\n

Signed Art Editions (No. 1\u2013255) are also available, each accompanied by a signed print.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Phil Mistry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Jobs, Cupertino, California, 2006 \u00a9 Albert Watson, 2025 Albert Watson is one of photography\u2019s great image-makers. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[154168,365,362,363,364,2584,435,366,18,117,596,19,17,14383,62203,154169],"class_list":["post-318319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-albertwatson","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-book","tag-celebrity","tag-design","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-fashion","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-legend","tag-photographer","tag-stevejobs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116007725019814991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}