HAMILTONS GALLERY

Albert Watson: Skye

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Albert Watson is renowned for his portraits of actors, models and athletes, and fashion photography for magazines, including more than 100 covers for Vogue worldwide. In 2013 he began a project on the island of Skye in Scotland allowing him to create a series of landscape photographs in his native country. As a boy Watson had often camped with his parents on the island which remained magical to him for its dramatic landscapes. He acknowledges that the sun is the same all over the world but there is a humidity in the air on Skye that helps to contribute to special atmospheric conditions.

Working 12 hours a day for 5 weeks in Autumn in the hope of encountering bad weather and with a crew to support him, Watson produced a body of extraordinary photographs that he hoped would do more than simply document the landscapes he visited. He remembers, "I was terrified of coming to Skye and producing picture postcards. I wanted to create landscapes that were quite mysterious".

In order to obtain the kind of images he had in mind, he needed to "dominate" the landscape and slightly alter it. This effect was partially achieved by digitally splicing different images together at a very high resolution. The project was inspired by several sources such as Victorian romanticism, Impressionist painting and the Lord of the Rings.

The photographs are being offered by Hamiltons for the first time in editions of ten plus two artist proofs measuring 107 x 142cm. and in an edition of three plus one artist proof measuring 83 x 243 cm.