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Features

Art: Gavin Watson

Sep 13, 2010
-
Posted by James Kendall

In The Wire the highest compliment that McNulty and Bunk can give any of their colleagues is that they are ‘natural police’. If there’s a ‘natural photographer’ it’s Gavin Watson. His book Skins contains stunning photographs of his skinhead mates, some of which he took completely untrained at the age of 15. He says he can’t explain why he emerged as a fully formed photographer without any study or obvious influences.

After Gavin got tired of the skinhead scene he stumbled into rave just as it was kicking off. A bit skint, the offer of free entry if he bought his camera was too tempting, although he admits he hated taking the photos. He didn’t think much when they came back from the developers either and he threw them in a box and left them. His hook-up with Vice magazine made him reassess the work 20 years later and the photos now form a highly evocative portrait of those early, lawless years as both a book and an exhibition.

Individually the grainy black and white pictures are beyond rough and ready but collectively the lack of gloss shows how real the warehouse scene was – this wasn’t the beautiful people of Ibiza. If you have any interest in dance music or photography, check it out.

Hotel Pelirocco, Regency Square

Sep 13, 2010
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James Kendall
James Kendall was the co-owner and editor of SOURCE. He’s been a music journalist since 1992 and spent over a decade travelling the globe covering dance music for DJmag. He’s interviewed a range of subjects from Bat For Lashes, Foals and James ‘LCD Soundsystem’ Murphy to Katie Price and the Sugababes. He’s a keen photographer and has work featured in The Guardian.
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