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