Steven Watson
STEVEN WATSON, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1977
Black and white photograph created with 120 film, 20” x 20”, Artist’s Collection
Steven Watson is a cultural historian and documentary filmmaker. Steven, Uta and I have been very close friends since 1972, when we all attended graduate school in Santa Barbara. It’s New Year’s Eve 1977, and we all meet together in Hoboken where I was born. Steven, dressed playfully in formal clothes, poses in the frowning mask. As photographer, I appear in shadow in the mirror. I realize the complexity of this image. It’s a double self-portrait. The first is of my face on Steven’s body. The second is a portrait of myself in the mirror. As viewer, I observe the mask and the mirror at the same time. And I realize that the mask and the mirror serve the same function—to reflect back versions of the self, clear ones and hazy ones. Both change over time, unlike the mask and the mirror.
STEVEN WATSON, New York City, 2023
Digital color print, 20” x 20”,
Artist’s Collection
Steven has lived in the same New York City apartment since 1975. He dresses up for the new photo. The old clothes are long gone. I contribute the red scarf. I position myself near the mirror in the doorframe, less cloudy than before. His hair, once curly, is now straight. His age shows, but he’s retained his theatrical presence and child-like curiosity. My old twin-lens Rollieflex camera has morphed into an iPhone. I realize we could be brothers—wearing similar masks, reflecting in similar mirrors, defying the rapid movement of decades, re-inventing ourselves as we continue to pursue projects dear to our hearts.