1/2 Albert Watson - What Do Artists Do All Day ?
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- čas přidán 30. 03. 2014
- • What do Artists do all...
First broadcast: Mar 2014.
Episode 11/12 Documentary following Albert Watson over the course of a day photographing the barren, beautiful landscape of the Isle of Skye.
Edinburgh-born Albert Watson is one of the world's most successful commercial and fashion photographers. He has lived in the US for over 30 years, where he has photographed more than 100 Vogue covers and created some of the most iconic celebrity images of the 20th century, from Albert Hitchcock to Naomi Campbell.
In recent years he has turned to landscape photography, and in this film he comes back to Scotland for his latest project. Albert reflects on his past work and discusses the challenges of transferring his unique style to landscape photography.
Half the comments here are people commenting on the price of his camera. Yeah, his camera did cost a little bit more than your rebel, but he's devoted his life to this and spent decades working on his craft. He even stated at the beginning of the video he started on a Kodak Brownie which was the 20th century equivalent of grandma's $100 point-and-shoot. Quit getting hung up on gear and try to learn something from these people.
What can you learn from this video?
@@BoraBora_Sasha dedication and never forget where you come from
Great Comment cameras and lenses are tools, your sense of vision and skills make the difference i started 50 years ago with a 1918 Kodak Box camera which i still own, now i shoot with Nikon D200 bodies and various lenses. The Isle of Skye which i have been to is an amazing place to shoot
Sam Bulleit True, if you don’t know the craft all you have is a expensive camera.
Expensive camera it’s not going to deliver an excellent photography if you are lacking in technique skills
I traveled with people who had 8x10 cameras and their photos weren't so hot. The pair of eyes behind the lenses is where the magic is, not the equipment. :)
Aww, this is amazing! Thank's so much for the upload!
Beautiful images, that made me feel sad and lonely. You just never know what types of feelings can be touched..
Watching videos is a treat.
Watson has earned the freedom to do the sort of thing we see here. The world is crawling with aspiring fashion shooters, many of whom might get a break. But he was sharp enough to capitalize on his. And then there's the competitors, often the photographer's own assistants, to be warded off to maintain a spot. Fashion publications and ad agencies always have their eye out for a new camera genius, or the one who uses Photoshop most cleverly, and getting old and grey is no advantage.
I own a Phase One camera with blue ring lenses. So what? Yea they'e expensive, but so are most cars. Beating up on Watson because of the price of his camera [excluding lenses], by the way, is ridiculous and petty. As for assistants, he always did have lots of them around him. I never understood why, but that was - and still is - his thing. The man grew up in the days of film and made his money as a fashion and portrait photographer. As such, he had the payroll assistance of the great fashion houses and publications who paid the expenses of the best make-up artists, stylists, location scouts ... and so on. He was well taken care of in exchange for turning in great work for which he was well compensated. Young photographer who dismiss him need to look at his life in proper context. The go-to fashion photographers I knew in NYC back in the day were a pampered bunch. They had access to the very best of everything, and needless to say, this certainly contributed to their final product. Most young photographers can't hire massive crews like Watson. But remember: He didn't pay for them, either. If he did, he's be broke. It's just business. As for his talent, we could go all day about art, but I have always admired his work.
Here, here! I second these thoughts.
@@AnandaGarden I agree
Hi Albert Sir, You are genius. today first time I am watching ur videos. Get motivated my self - stay Blessed !
very inspiring !!
2:28 that window on the lake... ❤
Storr Lochs Lodge, the lodge in the Loch....... literally sat at this window right now.
A snap of the house and the road beside it would be an amazing still shot .
With all the gifted people involved in this, they still managed to get a finger in the shot... 13:32
amazing
My respect sir,i wish when i am on your age have the strength of walk talk think and see!!!
About Guidance ! awesome
This guy is a professional, he needs a crew. You think Roger Deakins sets up his own grip gear?
"i wouldn't want to cycle up this road" xD, this is something we are all well aware of.
Did not know he was Scottish explains why he is soooooo good..
excellent sense of humor :-)
What working artists do all day is work; and some of that is as clerks at grocery stores; as dog walkers, as wedding photographers, as habilitation providers for developmentally disabled young adults (my last favorite). Next month, I show at 85 Market in Newark. Last month, I showed at Luhring Augustine in NYC. A month later, I will have arranged a 30 day pop up not for profit at a vacant store front on Lower Broadway in Newark.
What do you want from me?
He shot Tupac
Lol!
After doing research on his work, he actually shot Tupac.
The one with the jean jacket, and hoodie. Pretty great picture.
ahahahahah
Takeaways from this documentary - you don’t always have to get up pre dawn to get a great shot. Elements create atmosphere at any time of the day 🤔
He is the world's best photographer. Not sure why the bad comments. When Steven Spielberg wants a photographer he calls Albert Watson. He shot the ad for Memoirs of A Geisha. Do you think Spielberg doesn't know who is the best?
There is no best in the arts, there is only personal preference. Why do you not know this?
I am just using the language we always use in arts. They give out Oscars for best, not for personal preference. The debates is what makes it interesting.
Sebastião Salgado, Josef Koudelka, Trent Parke, Bruce Gilden, David Muench, Elliot Erwitt, Martin Parr, Michael Kenna and many other Magnum members could easily claim to be the world's greatest photographer. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gilden hadn’t claimed to be more than once. In my opinion Koudelka owns the crown, "Exile" and "Gypsies" have to be two of the greatest bodies of work by any photographer living or dead. He is closely followed by Salgado and both these men have untouchable CVs. Their photographs informed the world and would both probably turn down any offer of work from any Hollywood director or producer.
He has a name, and is in the club of the famous. That does not mean that he is the best! If Spielberg would call You, i am sure You would also make some very good photos.
Rankin gets all sorts of gigs to photograph the rich and famous and I wouldn’t put him in the top 100.
9:49 The Album Leaf - Window
Cool
Why the terrible, distracting music? Can't we just watch and listen without being 'entertained.'
Can anyone please tell what's the music played at 12:26? (too bad any of the soundtrack is listed in the final credits!) ** Thank you for the upload, 'Art Documentaries' !!
Jun Miyake - Lillies Of The Valley
Just sitting here with my 35mm I picked up at goodwill for $8 looking at a dude who pays people to setup his tripod
Here's what it all means in a nutshell.... A famous art director of the then famous magazine, Harpers Bazaar in the 60's once said.... "bring me something that I've never seen before" His name? Alexey Brodovitch... a guru to people such as Avedon, Hiro, Art Kane, Bert Stern, Jimmy Moore, Saul Lieter and many others. I don't believe that Albert ever knew him but they would have hit it off.... I don't know if Albert would have met Alexey's requirements .... after all.... "bring me something I've never seen before" is a big question mark. Who knows what he has seen before? But you get the general idea and I think Albert might have fitted in.
Anyone have the track ID for about 3-min in electronic and trumpet piece?
Humille tío humille !!!
A $55k Phase One camera, plus a crew to follow you around and do everything except press the shutter button. Wow, not a bad life. There's me trudging up a mountain with nothing but my little Canon and a sandwich at 4am, I feel such a fool.
+Justin Jones :)
+Justin Jones however remember, all of this expensive kit and team to do everything for you but yet the photos he takes are quite poor really. None of them made me go wow at any moment. (his landscapes pictures anyway, his portraits are fantastic).
+Justin Jones Dude.. He is carrying Phase One at age 70. I m sure he would have seen his fair share of struggle.. during his whole career to reach that point.
+MooseFactoryFilms Seriously though, those are painfully boring landscape image. Just because someone is good at one type of photography, doesn't make them good at another. Landscapes and portraits are VERY different. Portrait you have to understand people and artificial light. Landscapes you must understand some meteorology and how outdoor light behaves.
I've found that usually very good portrait photographers are not so good at wildlife, or landscape, or macro...and vice versa. They're all too different.
Albert has shot landscapes his entire career, and done it very well. He might be more famous for his portraits and fashion photography, but this is certainly not new to him. Go look at his photography in Morocco from the '90s and the book "Maroc" (Rizzoli, 1999), and see all of his work around Las Vegas from the early 2000s ("Strip Search" Blackwell, 2010). Tons of beautiful landscapes. Also, remember that this documentary does not show the finished photographs. BBC only flashes a couple of preliminary versions of the photos on the screen. I think some of the finished work is on his website.
cow rush hour only on skye? i don't think so. i just came back from Switzerland. we were stuck on a road with cows in front of us... a road that was barely as wide as the car we were in... high up in the Alps with no rails what-so-ever! that was somethin ! lol
+Ramtin Kazemi so what!!!!!?????
relax cheerio!111!!!!
tell me you did bealach na ba when you were here
where is part II of this?
It's a pity the second part of this is blocked in the UK - ironic when the photographer is Scottish.
1:46 'next project is in the caribbean' XD ahahahahaah
Song name at the begin?
Music at 8:45? I know this one.
he stitches the pictures from a phase one to get more megapixels i think that is a bit to mutch
I am trying to figure out that song at 8:16 is. Any tips much appreciated! Thanks!
And it is the people that name an artist . And not this one .
His attitude would be appropriate for a Wes Andreson character
The real Obi-Wan
yes, scotland is beautiful, has is wales, warwickshire, ect ect ect. EXCEPT IF ITS PISSING DOWN WITH RAIN.
Which it mostly is.
I live in the beautiful west of England.
I think the rain is what makes these landscapes so beautiful..it only creates the contrast for the sun
What is the name of the song in the beginning?
+alphatan2 Penguin cafe orchestra - The ecstasy of dancing fleas. Don't shoot the messenger lol i have looked it up with Soundhound :)
richard090368 thank you so much..
Try the app Shazam
I also need a 3-man team which sets up my tripod and camera and follows me the whole day carrying all my stuff.
At least he deserves it. But I see daily many really sucks photographers able to pay assistants and mules.
if you don't start making your dream, people will hire you to build their dream by using you dream and let you to carry tripod everyday without paying you. it calls stupid intern with professional that's why most of people go work with unprofessional photographer because of MONEY!!!
If he can afford it and it makes it easier for him to do his job more effectively, then why not? Having assistants is not uncommon and there's nothing wrong with it. I've worked for years as a freelance photo assistant to commercial photographers and there's a lot more to it than just being an extra set of hands.
+Laszlo Horvath That doesn't seem enjoyable though... I mean what is he actually doing? If he had one person to come and help him out, that would be one thing... But one of the best things about landscapes photography is the peace and quiet and enjoying the beauty of nature, not having a bunch of annoying people around you setting up your shit.
what camera is he using?
a Phase One medium format camera (larger sensor than full frame cameras like the Nikone D810) that cost more than ten or twenty thousand dollars
Misleading title... This is not "what artists do all day" this is just the day in the life of one person. Plus you can't summarize what all artists do all day... Depends on the person and the type of artist. And they don't spend all day every day on their art.
The title refers to a series of programs about various professionals, and Watson is just one of them (tinyurl.com/ny8nl5p).
haha "let me just pull over here and get a quick snapshot" 10 min later hes shooting tethered with 2 assistants and a digital tech
Read research learn, look and observe, listen and so forth but overuse tube.
I'm suprised he didnt get a crew too drive ahead and clear that cattle before he arrived
after the crew set up his whole shot he commented ,"I used to be faster a couple yrs ago" did he have a different crew a couple years ago ?
WISH I could afford that camera.
Why would you need one?
Dear John:),
that is a $30k medium format camera, which may make some difference to a master photographer like this guy. I presume that you are most likely NOT a master photographer, or if you are, please send me a link to your portfolio to shut me up, ok?
Danijel L john is a master
John, I looked up your work. Again said, the question was who would need a MF camera for the line of work that he does. I can imagine some photographers would benefit from it, such as landscape photographers who print big and detailed. For your wildlife shots, any dslr with long lens is just fine. MF cameras sell because people want to have something different than the photographer standing next to them, that is strange to me and that is why I asked that (stupid?) question. So relax and keep up with your work, cheers
WomackPhotoKCMO You dont need expensive camera and equipment to get that "Shot" a lot of time and patience and knowing your equipment is the best thing to do.
took me the whole video to understand sky for him means Scotland, and not sky
Island of Skye in Scotland...
@@nidieunimaitre007 thanks!!
he is like rock star who takes all the credit for songs when clearly he had other musicians who did their writing
Breathtaking portrait. Mediocre landscape.
Really? How can you tell? The documentary doesn't show finished photographs.
He has the strangest Scottish American accent.
What do artists do all day? they pine for 3 assistants to carry the heavy shit.
+michaelmontano1 lol
+michaelmontano1 lol
+michaelmontano1 He probably started in a period that was easier to stand out than nowadays if you just start. He had to work hard in order to get a multi millionaire he is now (at this moment he is selling his house in NYC for millions of dollars). For me, I think every photographer would like to have a career like this photographer has. Included the 3 assistants (I would be happy with even 1 assistant to carry my heavy stuff :P ).
+michaelmontano1 I'd carry heavy stuff around all day to watch an artist/photographer this amazing work.
If you are focused on the assistants, you have missed the point.
It's a BBC documentary, so we have to endure unnecessary, often loud and intrusive music OVER people speaking. Par for the course.
With rare exception, and this ain't one of them, a commercial photographer IS NOT an artist. He is just a record maker.
your OPINION has been duly noted
Watson is NOT a commercial photographer. He is more than that... it is like denying the art of Architects, Illustrators, Type designers, Book cover designers, clothes designer... and of so many others genres n the basis that the art is for commercial purposes. Wise up!
Albert Watson is indeed an "artist," not just a commercial/fashion photographer, which is what he did mostly earlier in his career. Do your homework. His photography is in museums and galleries all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian in D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow .... the list goes on. Keep in mind that Andy Warhol began his career in advertising, drawing shoes. I guess he's not an artist either.
Aaron Munro
1 second ago
Albert Watson is indeed an "artist," not just a commercial/fashion photographer, which is what he did mostly earlier in his career. Do your homework. His photography is in museums and galleries all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian in D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow .... the list goes on. Keep in mind that Andy Warhol began his career in advertising, drawing shoes. I guess he's not an artist either.
REPLY
I'd be interested to know the requisite tools of an 'artist' - is it watercolours and brushes...or oils and palettes? or both; do pencils count? what about coloured pencils...or are they too cheesy/amateurish? Pastels? wax crayons? - sticks with charcoal on cave walls? -I'm being a mixture of facetious and curious; is there a definitive 'tool' that makes one an 'artist'??
Why does he have 3 people with him doing everything but clicking the shutter???
lol wtf is the crew all about! I dont know what im watching lo0l
"You've got to dominate the landscape." I don't think even a fool would say that. Perhaps he fantasizes he is in a Mercedes with a 5Ok kit and and assistants.
Think of Turner's seascape paintings or Ansel Adams' & Muybridge's landscapes photos .. Chinese scroll paintings. Those are artists. This gent is a recorder, at best a digital documenter.
+PushPullPp Yea, that's a pretty silly statement. You cannot "dominate" the landscape. Landscape photography is all dependent on the weather and you CANNOT control that. I would say you have to SUBMIT to the landscape... You have to accept it and understand how it changes based on the weather, and learn the understand the weather. That's what Ansel Adams did; he knew where to go, when to go, and how to use natural light to his advantage.
You mean a fool won't understand the statement. Turner "dominated" the landscape... he made many drawings and painting, before making his final image. It is sort of the whole point of being a fucking artist.
Wft32540 - Bollocks! You haven't got a clue what you are on about!
"That's what Ansel Adams did; he knew where to go, when to go, and how to use natural light to his advantage."
In other words, he "dominated" his subject.
What a moronic post.. Albert simply meant he wants to shoot the landscape the way HE sees it, and not have the landscape dictate HOW he shoots it. And do your homework, PushPullPp. Albert is far from a recorder. I guess you'd say that Warhol was just silk screener.
Why he is open the door by himself ??? WTF is going wrong with this Crew ?
He is not an artist. he is a documentor.
i had to skip all of these, borinnggg..
Wtf! Why does he always have a crew with him? Shooting landscapes teethered is insane! This is really absurd. People rating his landscapes as amazing just because he is a legend at portraits is also rediculous. Its like people buying art from celebrities like mick jagger. I wish I had some one to clean my lens!
Poor baby..
A nonsense title, we artists are up way, way before 8.45am, having probably (tried) to get some sleep in a freezing cold car until just before dawn. We then hump 17 Kilos of gear (that is worth more than the car) up the mountain on our own and often we come back with little or nothing. Give me fay Godwin any day, with her one body & a standard lens - alone in the landscape.
Watson certainly did all of that earlier in his career. This is what happens when you become successful, and older. Don't hate. Eric Clapton no longer carries his own guitar and amp to a gig either.
a very, very average photographer.
Can you imagine a crew of that size to photograph a landscape? ...hehehe...when I think of a real artist with a camera like William Eggleston, it's just him and his equipment. A bit pretentious if you ask me, then again he's not a "great" photographer in spite of how this program may depict Watson.
What a bitter man you must be. Can we see some of your life's work that's been published and re-published thousands of times? Oh, you don't have any? What a surprise.
@@retrospective77 Bitter? you asshole, I'm in the fine art industry and Watson's work is NEVER seen in the best galleries that exhibit serious artists ...you know zero about this you clown...get a life loser!
@@timages that hurt your feelings old man? Must suck to be you, working in the fine art industry, but never created anything worth while. I guess that's why you gotta bash people with more talent, make you feel like you're something 😂
@@retrospective77 You don't know shit....do something else with your empty time and head...now piss off