Photographers Research- Gavin Watson

Gavin Watson:
Gavin Watson began to take photographs from as early as the age of 14. He himself was a skinhead who was immersed in Madness and Two Tone as he began to experiment with photography through documenting the antics of his closest friends and his brother. As he himself was a skinhead, it made create a truer insight into skinheads at this time. Yet it could also mean it formed bias as he was taking photos of his friends so may have manipulated certain images in order to make them better. Watson's early work can be found in a book called "Skins" which was given the name of "The most important photographic records of this unique subculture". As mentioned in my 3000 word essay, Watson was inspired by photographer Terry Richardson and there are resembles within Watson's work to support this. Watson is recently working for fashion brands such as Dr Martens and Farah Vintage and for a range of different magazines. Below are 6 examples of his work varying from different stages in his career and can show how his work can influence my personal project.

This is an example of Watson's more recent work coinciding with the collaborations of Dr Martens. Even though this photo shoot was for the fashion industry, I personally believe it still creates and displays the youth culture very well. Firstly the technique of depth of field is really enticing aspect of this image because it is the DMs in the foreground on the seat which is the sharpest part of the photo grabbing the audiences eye- this is obviously the main part of the photo due to it being for the commercial advertisement of the product. Notwithstanding this, this photo is also relevant to my research of youth because it shows the couples/ relationship side of youth alongside the rude side. For example they are on a train to somewhere, cuddling and not caring about anyone else and at the same time instead of just using their two chairs which they are sat on, they are taking up the other two chairs in front of them for his feet and then the female subject even has her feet on the window as a sign of disrespect. Therefore this image may influence my work in the form of giving me an idea to idea two subjects who are being disrespectful of property- with the feet on the chairs. 

Personally, I believe this is clearly be a very early image of Watson- when he first started doing photography, taking photos of his friends. Nowadays, having open fires in public spaces in generally banned which suggests this to be a long time ago. The dennotation of this photo of two boys sitting around a fire leads to having a connotation of rebelling. There are many different ways youth can rebel against adults however through fire I believe is to have the most symbolism especially as the photo has been taken in black and white- stripping away the sharp colours on what makes fire beautiful and enticing. This is because it implies to the audience that these boys are using something which would have been many years ago used for light, but they are using it for entertainment and destruction, for there to be fire, they must be burning something. This image has influenced me by giving me the idea of using one of my shoots in doing it all about the destruction and teenagers through fire.  

This photo is part of Watson's Girls Allowed series which had the purpose of unveiling the unseen attitude of young women subculture. This image fits in perfectly with the rest of these photos because it shows the rebellion of female youth. According to theorists such as Vern & Bonnie and also functionalists Parsons, Women's role is to be the home maker/ nurturer who stays at home to either do the domestic work or to help their mothers provide a loving home for the men in the family. However this photo provides an insight in the lower class/ working class whom appear to not follow the capitalist ideology. I find this photo really interesting when looking into youth because the simple pose of this subject straight away gives a stereotypical "Can't be bothered" attitude. More over, Watson has included a simple punctum of a broken handle just above the centre left hand side which can be use of symbolism in this photo- a door with no handle isn't accessible only from the inside- the same with youth, Watson mainly was able to capture this many photos on skin heads and youth subculture through "being the right part", with him being a punk himself, it made it easy for him to access the group from the inside.

Watson Photographed from the inside- being a member of an isolated gang but being able to capture a raw insight of the gang. this image was taken in the 80s showing Wycombe middle England. "I was never a documentary photographer. "I was just photographing my mates, it wasn't deliberate, over people gave me that label". This image is an example of his work in his earlier years when taking them of his friends. Many people suggest skinheads/punks to be serious and always annoyed, yet this image denies the stereotypes and presents the fun side of youth. This image is a really interesting insight of youth because even though their appearance could be considered "angry" and "confrontational" yet their actions appear to describe a different side of youth culture- their collective identity is of the shared interest of having fun, this also links with the theory that lower class individuals value being part of a collective rather than being individual. Furthermore, Watson's framing of this image suggests a candid affect on this- he hasn't thought directly on the framing, the subjects transition through the right third to the centre which has a greater effect on the youth being a separate community. Behind the subjects appears to be a vandalised fence- the purpose of stopping people from falling off this wall, yet as they are on the other side of the fence, smiling and willingly jumping shows the rebellion on the rules, there is a fence there to stop this behaviour yet they do it anyway.