Albert Watson’s new photobook, Kaos, encompasses fifty years of eclectic work. Equally a photographer of fashion, celebrities, and models, as well as landscapes, still lifes, and documentary, his career spans a wide range of genres. Beginning with the iconic portrait of director Alfred Hitchcock holding a plucked goose, he is one of the few living photographers whose name is often said in the same breath as true contemporaries Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.

Born in Edinburgh, Watson studied graphic design at university, not photography. It is this basis in design that Watson has always claimed as the most influential on his photographic work. He then spent many influential years in London and Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s. Settling in New York in the mid-1970s, he began an illustrious career that has included over one hundred covers of Vogue, as well as some of the most iconic portraits of our time. We spoke to Watson about putting together Kaos, his years in London and LA, and what makes a good magazine cover.

Barry Pierce: In your own words, could you tell me about Kaos?
Albert Watson: Well, I’ve always liked the title, because one of the problems I’ve had over the years is that many photographers specialise in a particular area. They may become fashion photographers, but then even within fashion, they become very specialised. Throughout my entire career, I was always dipping my toes into different genres. So it was not unusual for me to spend three weeks doing fashion shoots, Vogue covers, and beauty campaigns. After that, I might be doing a project for Rolling Stone, or going to Moscow to do a project for Stern magazine on the film studios there. Then I might be in the basement of the Cairo Museum photographing the personal effects of Tutankhamun, or on an island in Scotland doing landscapes. This can be a problem for identity.

When I did my very first book in 1994, called Cyclops, I had trouble with the publishers because they wanted me to do a celebrity book – they wanted it to sell. I fought them on that, and eventually they gave me control over what went into the book. That book is really the foundation. To jump to Kaos, it has the same philosophy of assembly. Cyclops came out decades before Instagram, but I always felt I was on the right track for that. Now, people have no trouble going through Instagram and looking at a car crash, a girl in a bikini, a soccer game, etc. They don’t get confused, they just go to the next picture if they’re not interested. In a strange way, I kind of foresaw this. And therefore, the book Kaos is my Instagram. It has that style.

“Now, people have no trouble going through Instagram and looking at a car crash, a girl in a bikini, a soccer game, etc.”

BP: What is your take on Instagram?
AW: I think it’s kind of amazing. I don’t think there’s a lot happening these days in music, and I don’t think there’s a lot happening these days in fashion either, right? Technology, for me, is like science fiction. It’s beyond outrageous. I think what you can do now with photography, especially with a computer, is really amazing.

I do think that after a while Instagram gets a little boring, though. You could say that 60 or 70 percent of it is junk, and you really have to filter through that to make it interesting. But sometimes that can be quite funny. You’ll find two kittens fighting over some milk on a plate and it will have forty thousand likes or maybe two million likes. 

BP: I want to jump back in time a little. You arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Did you go there straight from Scotland?
AW: No, I went from the University of St Andrews, which is now the University of Dundee, then down to London for three years. I went to the Royal College of Art. That was from 1966 to 1969. I taught for one year at London University and from there went from London to LA. To be in London at that time was kind of amazing. That was the time of the King’s Road, it was the time of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, of everything. Then into the 70s, I saw Bowie doing one of his Ziggy Stardust shows, which was outrageous. I saw a lot of great people at that time in LA.

There was a lot going on at that time in fashion and also in music. It began to slow down a little bit for me in the 70s and 80s. There were bits and pieces of stuff that were good, but by the year 2000, it was really winding down. Fashion was still strong up until the beginning of the 2000s, and then it basically ground to a halt. Fashion simply doesn’t change now. I had a project where I photographed high school kids in the 90s and in the 2000s and the remarkable thing is, despite all the years in between, they’re wearing the same clothes. 

“I saw Bowie doing one of his Ziggy Stardust shows, which was outrageous.”

BP: What was it about fashion in the 1970s that you were drawn to?
AW: I was interested in fashion because I felt that you could take pictures and make a statement with your fashion photographs. At that time, I became quite successful quite quickly, and I was lucky in that respect. What changed things a little bit was that, out of the blue, when I was in Los Angeles, I got a call from New York, from Harper’s Bazaar. They wanted me to do a portrait of Alfred Hitchcock. I did that, and it became enormously successful.
Strangely enough, the portrait of Alfred Hitchcock actually helped me in fashion. I started getting all these fashion assignments based on the Alfred Hitchcock picture, which was a bit odd. But you’re only as good as the last thing you do, so if you get ten pages of fashion and you do a good job, they’ll give you another ten pages. I developed stylistically in fashion, and at the same time I was developing in portraiture. I then used techniques from portraiture to do Vogue covers, and I ended up doing zillions of Vogue covers.

BP: So the Hitchcock portrait was the turning point for you?
AW: I would say it was a turning point. A lot of people ask me, “What’s the favourite picture I’ve done?” I always say that one, not because it’s the best picture. I think I’ve done stronger, better images, but that was an important picture.

“The portrait of Alfred Hitchcock actually helped me in fashion. I started getting all these fashion assignments based on the Alfred Hitchcock picture, which was a bit odd.”

BP: You seemingly have photographed every celebrity over the decades, but was there anyone you never managed to shoot and really wish you had?
AW: Well, there were a couple of occasions when I had shoots scheduled with Madonna, and they never happened. She came along at the right time. She had talent, and strangely enough, she didn’t have any competition. A couple of times I was meant to shoot her, and then it just fell through. Not through her or through me, but because of arguments with Rolling Stone about who the journalist was going to be who interviewed her. She wouldn’t agree to be interviewed by that particular journalist, so it never happened.

BP: I’ve been reading a lot of the interviews you’ve done over the years and you’ve often discussed your photographic influences. But I’m curious about who your non-photographic influences would be?
AW: I’m lucky to have a large apartment in New York, and in front of me right now are about ten thousand books. Books on everything. There are books on Egyptian art, Japanese art. There are books on Francis Bacon. There are books on Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Warhol, Lichtenstein. Basically, I surround myself with a kind of blanket of art books. I was always inspired generally by art, not by a specific photographer.

“I surround myself with a kind of blanket of art books. I was always inspired generally by art, not by a specific photographer.”

BP: As someone who has produced hundreds of fashion magazine covers, what makes a good cover?
AW: I think, in terms of my own covers, it wasn’t because I had taken the best photograph, but because I had made the best constructed photograph. In other words, you could see it from across the street. It would have a graphic quality, a graphic simplicity, and an iconic look to it. Because of that, my covers were very successful.

Albert Watson: Kaos is published by Taschen. More details can be found here.