Albert Watson: Legendary Photographer of Fashion and Celebrity
Albert Watson: Legendary Photographer of Fashion and Celebrity
Albert Watson is a fashion, celebrity, and art photographer with over 100 Vogue covers and iconic images of celebrities and champions of business captured for over five decades. His subjects have included Mick Jagger, Steve Jobs, Jack Nicholson, Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur, and Andy Warhol.
The iconic Steve Jobs portrait with his thumb on the chin, which was used in his biography and by Apple when he passed away, was shot by Watson in 2006.
“There are some things that you have to be quite strong about — how you’re going to take the picture,” Watson tells PetaPixel. “One of the first things was that he would arrive at nine o’clock, and the people at Cupertino at Apple, where I did the picture, said, ‘Okay, we can give you the conference room at 8.30.’
“I said, ‘If you give me 30 minutes before, I’m not doing the shooting. I need to be there at 6.30 am’ [which] they didn’t understand. I said, ‘This has all to do not with me but with Steve Jobs. I want to be as efficient, organized, and prepared for him so that when he walks in, I am 95-96-97[%] ready for him so he is immediately available to the camera, and I’m not working on lighting for half an hour with him.’
