George Watson (photographer)
George Watson | |
|---|---|
| Born | George Railton Watson February 10, 1892 Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Died | May 12, 1977 (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | Photographer |
George Watson (February 10, 1892 – May 12, 1977) was a 20th-century American photographer working in California. Several of his relatives were also in the photo business, or in the motion picture industry, or broadcast news.[1][2]
Watson was born in 1892 in Moncton, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada.[3] Watson immigrated to the U.S. in 1900 and was naturalized a citizen in 1909.[4] Watson got his first newspaper staff job in Los Angeles in 1910.[2] He shot aerial photos of Los Angeles in 1919, and he photographed the St. Francis dam disaster and the Owens River Aqueduct bombing.[5] Watson also founded the Los Angeles Press Photographers Association.[5]
He left newspapers to become manager of ACME News Photo Service, later UPI Photo.[6] He took celebrity and Hollywood photos in the 1920s and 1930s in company with colleagues like Paul Strite, Dick Farrell, and Hyman Fink.[7] The family archive includes of a photo by Watson of Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin together at a movie premiere in the 1920s.[8]
The work of the Watson clan was exhibited in a show at the Los Angeles Science Museum in 1972.[9] The Getty holds a collection of Watson's shots.[10] The total Watson family archive may include between one and two million photographs.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ "The Watson Family's L.A.: A Century of Photography in the City of Angels". PBS SoCal. July 25, 2013. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
- ^ a b "Historical photographs featured". The Southwest Wave. January 13, 1972. p. 36. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
- ^ "George Railton Watson, 1892". Canada Births and Baptisms, 1661-1959. FamilySearch.
- ^ "Entry for George R Watson and Mamie E Watson, 1920". United States Census, 1920. FamilySearch.
- ^ a b c "Capturing history one frame at a time". The Signal. August 17, 2008. p. 17. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
- ^ "George Watson succumbs". Valley News. May 13, 1977. p. 20. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
- ^ "Uncrowned King of Hollywood--the Man with a Camera". The Tribune. April 18, 1936. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
- ^ "Images of L.A." The Los Angeles Times. July 28, 1994. p. 191. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
- ^ "George Watson, L.A. News Photo Pioneer, Dies". The Los Angeles Times. May 13, 1977. p. 37. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
- ^ "George Watson (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection)". The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
External links[edit]
- Quick, Watson, the camera: 75 years of news photography. worldcat.org.
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