Albert Watson, 81, is one of the most famous and renowned photographers in the world. His portraits of Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson and Steve Jobs became photographic icons and his photos can be seen in many museums and galleries around the world. Watson spoke to Stern on the phone in a studio in New York.
Mr. Watson, you photographed the little-known Kate Moss in 1993. What was it like for her back then? I still remember all of this as I do today. It was a beauty production for a German magazine, exactly on her 19th birthday, and we shot in Marrakesh because the light there is best at this time of year.
Kate Moss was still fairly new to the business…but that didn’t show. She was very professional and focused and we worked hard, we only had that one day. I took 18 pictures and each of them was subsequently exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.
What was your impression when you saw Kate Moss for the first time? She was different from the models I actually photographed. Not very tall, around 1.70 meters, but with a very elegant body. Actually she was like a bird with very light but very good bones. And she immediately understood what I had in mind. It was actually a beauty story, but I wanted to go beyond simple cosmetic photos and thought about timeless portraits. She had the face for it.
Among the 18 pictures there are also some in which Kate Moss is naked. Moss later said that she was supposed to be photographed topless when she was 15 or 16 and refused because she didn’t want it and wasn’t happy with her body. She was already 19 when we took the photo. And it happens to people like that Images always focus on how you do it and how you discuss it with a model. I suggested the pictures to her and we first took Polaroids that she could see. We also had a very professional team of make-up and hair stylists, which is important; it creates a trusting atmosphere.
You say that Kate Moss wasn’t like the models you used to photograph. What was different about her? She was a cool girl, she came from the streets and had this credibility of her origins. This was a quality that others did not have; they had something else for that. For example, I also photographed Cindy Crawford when she was 19, and she was a young woman. Kate was a girl and has remained one with great success to this day. I don’t mean their mentality, but their physicality. Kate is somehow still the bird she was back then.
They never worked with Kate Moss again after those 18 pictures in Marrakech. Why not? Yes, that was a shame, but it just didn’t happen anymore. I met Kate from time to time and we talked about it and would probably have photographed together again, but she was a fashion model and I was never just a fashion photographer. I have a lot of respect for fashion photographers like Steven Meisel or Peter Lindbergh, but I came to photography as a graphic designer, so you pay attention to other elements in images than fashion ones. I’m always interested in the strength of a photo and that it will still have that strength in ten years. Fashion photography is always tied to the time in which it was created due to the fashion it shows. That also has a quality, but mine is just different.
Did you still follow Kate Moss’ career? There were also scandals, but they didn’t hurt her. Yes, that’s also due to this world, into which such young models fall completely unprepared. A lot or everything gets mixed up; at the beginning they are deeply in love with their boyfriend, but suddenly they earn thousands of dollars and the boyfriend earns nothing, and so their lives suddenly don’t fit together anymore. It’s a very artificial world, but considering how long Kate was successful and how much money she still makes today, she got through it all well.
The exhibition “Kate Moss” with photographs by Albert Watson, Ellen von Unwerth, Herb Ritts and others can be seen at Camera Work in Berlin until February 17th.
