Albert Watson // Kaos

KAOS presents a kaleidoscopic overview of Albert Watson’s career to date and the dazzling array of subjects, objects, people, and places he has encountered along the way. A skillfully curated survey of a uniquely diverse, dynamic portfolio, it spans nearly half a century of photography to encounter stars, statesmen, women, and strangers; bound through neon-blazing cities; find figures poised, gymnastic, or shimmering with nude eroticism; roam the bright lights and the backstreets; soak up extravagant sunsets; enter the controlled studio environment; and breathe in the elemental wilds of the photographer’s native Scotland.

From Watson’s breakthrough portrait of Alfred Hitchcock for the Christmas 1973 edition of Harper’s Bazaar to a 2016 shot of Kanye West, each photograph reverberates with tightly coiled power, tension, and poetry. Whether it’s a portrait of a Las Vegas dominatrix, Elvis’s gold suit, a chimpanzee, or a street scene in China, Watson excels in capturing the surface seamlessly and probing its myriad depths. Along the way, his celebrity portraiture, including the likes of David Bowie, Jay Z, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Jack Nicholson, Steve Jobs, and Andy Warhol, shows a particular interest in the private person behind the iconic façade.