Benjamin Oliver Anthony Watts; can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHyvx2EoWnk (born 19 January 1967) is a British-born photographer based in New York City, whose work has been published in various international fashion magazines, such as '' Elle'', '' Vogue'', ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', '' Vanity Fair'', and '' Condé Nast Traveller''.

Biography

Watts was brought up in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. He is the older brother of actress Naomi Watts and son of Peter Watts, who was initially a road manager for

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

and later their sound engineer, and was found dead of an apparent

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

overdose in August 1976, aged 30. Watts studied at the

Sydney College of the Arts The Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) is a contemporary art school that was a faculty of the University of Sydney from 1990 until 2017, when it became a school of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Until the end of 2019, the campus was locat ...

, where he started his photographic career as a photographer's assistant.

Career

He first came to New York in 1990, where he started documenting urban youth and was especially fascinated by hip hop culture. He moved to New York circa 1993. His work was shown in '' Vibe'' and '' Rolling Stone'' and in advertisements for Nike, Reebok and Gap. Besides his work for fashion magazines, Watts has shot advertising campaigns for companies such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Kodak, Sony Music and Apple.

Publications

* ''Portraits'' (2000) * ''Body and Soul'' (2001) * ''Tattoo Nation'' (2002) * ''Soul Style'' (2003) * ''History of Hip Hop'' (2003) * ''Tomo'' (2003) * ''Big Up'' (2004) * ''Montauk Dreaming'' (2015)

References

External links

*
photographers limited editions
- Online Gallery

- Interview with Ben Watts about ''Big Up'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Ben 1967 births Photographers from New York City Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Australian photographers