SKINS & PUNKS – GAVIN WATSON

LOST ARCHIVES 1978-1985

Avajaiset / Opening 7.11.2008 (->Facebook event< -)

What started off as a small collection of photographs the 14-year-old Gavin
Watson would take of his family and friends in Wycombe, middle England, in the 1970s and 80s would grow into one of the most important and influential photographic / youth culture books of the last 20 years. Published in 1994 and which The Times of London called “a modern classic,” Skins has influenced photographers like Terry Richardson and Jurgen Teller. It also helped sow the seeds for pretty much every kind of “youth” photography popular today. Three years ago, Vice Magazine Editor Andy Capper brought Gavin Watson out of a self-imposed exile and uncovered hundreds of new, unpublished photos that showed
a different side to his incredible, natural talent.

Skins & Punks is a singular retrospective complete with commentaries and an introduction by the director Shane Meadows (This Is England, Dead Man’s Shoes). The photos get what it is to really be a rebellious working class youth growing up in the 1980s. This is documentary photography at its best, a stunningly intimate window into a cultural movement. Gavin Watson is an acclaimed documentary and portrait photographer. His natural eye for a moment in time and the stark brutal honesty of the images he captured have made his collection of work one of the UK’s finest documentary portfolios. He has done work
for many global companies including Levi’s Dr Martens, countless music magazines, album covers and his work has been featured in fashion bibles such as Vice, i-D and The Face and in numerous exhibitions