Capturing their Essence
While Alfred Watson seldom focused his lens on strangers, preferring instead to take pictures of his family, the images of those
he did photograph captured not only the mood and physical details of his subjects, but their attitude and status in life as well.
From her checkered dress and headband to the cigarette dangling from her lips, this 1940s image reveals a woman with a strong personality. The photo location and woman’s identity are unknown.
The endless toil of farm work can be seen in the face and hands of this farmer smoking a cigarette. Taken somewhere in Venango Couny, PA, the artist stopped for the photo because the man resembled his father.
From his scraped knee to the scratches on his face, this young boy told his mother that another child had started the fight “for no reason at all.”
This image of Watson’s eldest daughter, Barbara, reveals a child engrossed in creating a work of art with her new set of watercolors.