Photographers research - Gavin Watson

Gavin Watson was born in London in 1965. When he was fourteen he got his first camera and began to take photographs of his brother and his friends, at sixteen, he started working at Camera Press as a darkroom assistant. He continued to photograph his younger brother and their friends who were a group of skinheads. Skinheads had become associated with the right-wing extremism of political parties like the National Front in the 1970s, his photograph were published in the books Skins (1994) and Skins and Punks (2008).

This photograph shows a boy on a train smoking. We know that this photograph was taken quite a while ago as smoking on the London underground was banned in 1987 after the fire at Kings Cross. Furthermore, a majority of Watson's photographs were taken in the 1970s and 1980s. I really like this photograph because the other people in the photograph are facing away from the boy smoking, this could portray to us that none of the adults want to be associated with him. I also like the lighting in this photograph because it creates a lot of shadows on the boys face, which shows the dark and the light sides to him.

This photograph shows two young boys, they are standing in a position which makes them seem much older than they are, they are lent over looking down at something below them, the boy in the background looks quite angry at something and is standing with his hand on his hip, not many young children stand like this naturally, I think that they have probably learnt how to act from older siblings that are involved in the skin head like these kids are. I don't think that this photograph was staged, although the position doesn't look like a normal position for a child to be standing in, it looks like he is naturally standing that way, rather than him being told to stand like that.

This photograph shows a teenage girl leaning against a door, she has shaved her head but left the fringe which was a very popular hairstyle at the time. I really like this photograph because of the contrast between the black on the door and the white of the wall, Watson may have posed her like this to show how teenagers are seen, they are often seen as negative and are stereotyped as rebellious individuals, however it is often the case that rather than doing this to rebel, many teenagers dress differently as a form of expression, or simply because they like the style. Furthermore, she is wearing quite dark colours, which also shows her as rebellious and negative.

This photograph is very candid and it shows teenagers how they actually are, many of Watson's photographs show teenagers as rebellious and aggressive, however this photo shows the opposite to that, the model looks worried, possibly about how she looks. She is leaning against a wall and looking to the left, which shows us that there must be something or someone over there. 

People that like to be away from too many people tend to stand against walls and keep away from the centre of attention so it's possible that she feels uncomfortable and wants to home