The Photography of Lewis Watts
The Center for Photographic Arts is honored to present a retrospective exhibition of works by Lewis Watts, an internationally renowned photographer, archivist, curator, and Professor Emeritus. With a significant focus on both historical and contemporary representations of individuals within the African diaspora, this exhibition features Watts’ striking portraits of artists, activists, writers, and musicians, as well as his photographs of archival objects, selections from his celebrated book Harlem of the West, and his impactful street photography. For over fifty years, Watts has centered his photographic practice and research on the culture, history, and migration of African diasporic communities. While his work began in the San Francisco Bay Area, it spans across the United States and extends internationally to Europe and other regions. We invite you to join us for the opening night, during which Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Judy Walgren will engage in a conversation with Lewis Watts, offering a unique opportunity to delve into the artist’s expansive body of work. This is an event not to be missed.
About the Author
Lewis Watts is a distinguished photographer, archivist, curator, and Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he taught for fourteen years. Prior to this, he held a faculty position in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley. Watts’ research and artistic practice focus on the “cultural landscape,” with an emphasis on communities within the African diaspora. His work encompasses documentary photography as well as the study of 19th- and 20th-century African American literature and ephemera.He is the co-author of Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (Heyday Books, 2020), New Orleans Suite: Music and Culture in Transition (UC Press, 2013), and Portraits (Edition One Press, 2020). Watts’ work has been widely exhibited and is part of the collections of prestigious institutions, including The Zimmerli Museum at Rutgers University (Seize the Time), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, Germany, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, Autograph in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, The Oakland Museum of California, The Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, NY, the Amistad Center for Art and Culture in Hartford, Connecticut, and many others. Currently, Watts is engaged in several ongoing photographic projects, including Charleston and the LowCountry for the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as long-term initiatives such as Portraits of Black Creatives and Effects of Migration Across America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The Photography of Lewis Watts
January 4 – February 9, 2025
The Center for Photographic Arts – San Carlos Carmel-by-the-Sea – CA
More info:
