BLACK AND WHITE: The Photography of Alfred Watson is a 72-page retrospect of the 1930s and 40s with over 50 original images from the artist’s award-winning portfolio. The book covers the artist’s early years, gallery awards and exhibits, and offers an historical overview of the events that shaped our country’s history.
Read the book Preface below.
PREFACE
Alfred Watson’s devotion to the art of photography was no secret, although the depth of his expertise was not uncovered until after his death in 2003. It was then that his daughter discovered shoeboxes of large-format negatives, carousels of slides, and floor to ceiling stacks of sixteen-by-twenty-inch prints lining our basement walls.
Other prints were found hidden in the attic crawlspace, and while a number were damaged by their exposure to the high humidity, the majority were salvageable. All were carefully packed and carried inside.
In total, over 400 original black and white prints were found, cataloged and placed into acid-proof boxes. A large number of these prints had been mounted and some had been signed in pencil. On the backs of many were the original gallery exhibition stickers.
Hundreds of large-format negatives were sorted, then viewed through a light box and placed in individual acid-proof sleeves. Negatives were filed by subject matter, and slides were viewed and organized in the same manner. It took over two years to complete the process.
As a child, I would sit next to my father in the red glow of the safe light in his basement darkroom and marvel at the images he created from blank pieces of paper. After his death, I made a promise to honor his memory by writing about his life and his photography.
With the completion of this book, I am at last fulfilling that promise.
~ Carol Watson