Albert Watson: "When the photography came around the corner, it had happened to me"

SPIEGEL: Mr. Watson, why are you even taking photographs?

Albert Watson: I discovered photography during my graphic design studies because both are somehow related. I love graphic design. But the moment the photograph came around the corner, it had happened to me. For the rest of my life.

SPIEGEL: Your first job had nothing to do with photography.

Watson: That's right. I calculated the routes of ballistic missiles from Great Britain to Russia.

SPIEGEL: How did that happen?

Watson: Curiously, my two best subjects were art and math, and the latter gave me a job at the Air Ministry, today's Department of Defense. After a year there I worked in the lab of a chocolate factory and analyzed the relationship between the individual ingredients. Our focus was primarily arsenic.

SPIEGEL: Arsenic? In a chocolate factory?

Watson: Well, as you may know, traces of arsenic are contained in just about everything that surrounds us. And because arsenic has accumulative properties, it is extremely dangerous. Once in the body, we will never let it go again. So, if the arsenic content in chocolate is too high, that's not good news.

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SPIEGEL: What did you find out?

Watson: You'd have to eat 20 kilos of chocolate - for a year every day - to die from arsenic poisoning.

SPIEGEL: Your career reads like an enduring success story. Have there ever been phases when things did not go according to plan?

Watson: Sure. Over the years, I realized that I made mistakes in shootings, especially if I was not well enough prepared.

SPIEGEL: For example?

Watson: In 1989 I first saw actress Nicole Kidman in front of the camera. It was about her movie "Dead Calm". I suggested to the editors to photograph them with water on their faces. When Nicole arrived in the studio, I greeted her, but disappeared again in the dark room, because I had to prepare an exhibition. I developed and developed and developed. After two hours, when I realized how time had gone by, Nicole had already finished the make-up and forgot to tell the make-up artist about my idea. Nicole had a lot of make-up on her face. I tried the water idea anyway.

SPIEGEL: And?

Watson: It looked, and I'm not exaggerating, absolutely terrible. Since then, I take care that something like that never happened to me again. The next time I photographed Nicole, I apologized to her. But she took it very easy.

SPIEGEL: Which day of your career did you remember until today?

Watson: There are several, but one stands out. I must have been in my 30s. In the morning I photographed the actress Catherine Deneuve in Paris for the cover of the French "Vogue". Then I got into a Concorde, arrived at 10:45 in my New York studio and worked there until 4pm on an advertising campaign for a hair product. Immediately afterwards I flew to Los Angeles and portrayed the musician Frank Zappa in my studio. So I basically did three jobs in one day - in Paris, New York and LA

SPIEGEL: For almost 50 years you have been shooting people above all. Why is our society so fascinated by the selfie?

Watson: That's what I talked about with Andy Warhol, the genius of all geniuses. Today everyone knows his famous prediction: in the future everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. And that's exactly what we have to do with the selfie. Anyone who photographs himself and uploads the image somewhere has the chance to become famous. The phenomenon of stars and starlets already existed in the 1950s, but as things and society grew faster and faster, so did the importance of celebrities. And from selfies.

One of the new stars on this stage is Gigi Hadid. I could not believe that she has more than 50 million followers on Instagram. When she posts a selfie with a cup of coffee, you write a million people: Great! Madness! Beautiful!

SPIEGEL: What do you think about that?

Watson: For me that's surreal, strange - and a phenomenon that Andy Warhol foresaw. I can upload one of my - I think - good photos on Instagram and get maybe 1000 likes for it. But if I put a snapshot of an exhibition opening in Moscow, I get 6000th Imagine, then van Gogh would have published his famous sunflower on Instagram - and 50 people look at the picture there. At the same time, 50,000 people comment on how some celebrity in Paris drinks coffee.

SPIEGEL: Instagram has shifted the balance between success, fame and quality.

Watson: Definitely. Quality no longer matters. Why else does a photo of a giraffe eating a leaf get four million likes?

SPIEGEL: What is your motivation to continue even after almost 50 years behind the camera?

Watson: Some people become heroin addicts. I am dependent on photography. As simple as that.

SPIEGEL: Have you ever thought about the moment when this desire to create new images has disappeared?

Watson: Then I'll probably look at the radishes from below.

Exhibition: "Albert Watson", Gallery Camera Work Berlin, November 23, 2019 to January 18, 2020