Gavin Watson: Spirit of ’69

Gavin Watson acquired one of the UK’s most important documentary portfolios by complete accident. Capturing three of the country’s most iconic subcultures – skins, punks and rave – it’s his photos of the original skinhead subculture as it emerged and transformed that form his most seminal work.

Watson now works for various publications and fashion brands, and his work for Dr. Martens’ Spirit of ’69 campaign explores a look and attitude that started back in 1969 by first generation skinheads and frames the epochal style movement in a modern environment, including a video voiced by Mike Skinner exploring skinhead history.

Born in London in 1965 and brought up in High Wycombe, at the age of 15 Watson began photographing the ‘Wycombe Skins’. A true working class movement, this skinhead culture fused a fixation on meticulous, ultra-minimalist style with the disparate influences of post-Windrush Caribbean culture, Trojan Records’ ska and rocksteady and a proud British sensibility.

Watson documented the bulk of the historical ‘skins’ era, taking place between 1979-81, and later compiled the images into his 2008 book Skins. Himself immersed in the scenes as they took place, Watson’s work challenges common perceptions of skinhead culture, and provides a powerful documentation of these iconic scenes. We caught up with him to talk Madness, modernism and making history.