Lewis Watts

Employment is recorded with University of California, Santa Cruz and University of California, Berkeley. Work by Lewis Watts is recorded in the collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California, Light Work and Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art.

• Name — Lewis Watts • Born — 1946 • Birthplace — Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. • Education — University of California, Berkeley • Occupation — Photographer, archivist curator, author, educator

Lewis Watts was born in 1946 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He has a BA degree in political science, as well as a MA degree in photography and design from University of California, Berkeley (U.C. Berkeley). He had taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of California, Berkeley, as well as other institutions for over 40 years. His work is inspired by his historical and contemporary interests and representation of people in the African diaspora. Watts work has been exhibited at and has collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Cité de la Musique (Paris, France), the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans, Louisiana), the Oakland Museum of California, the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, New York), the Amistad Center for Art and Culture (Hartford, Connecticut), Light Work (Syracuse, New York).

• 1998–1999 – Urban Foot Prints: The Photography of Lewis Watts, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California • 1999 – Lewis Watts, South to West Oakland, Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York • 1999 – Lifework Exhibit, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California • 1999 – Photography of Lewis Watts, Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts • 2015–2017 – New Orleans, Photographs by Lewis Watts, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California • 2016 – FRANCAIS, Photographs by Lewis Watts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California • 2017 – Mining the Archive, Rena Bransten Gallery, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, California • 2017 – Work from the Collection, Lewis Watts, Amistad Center of Art and Culture, Hartford, Connecticut

• 1999 – Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco (advisor) • 2014 – Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (Documentary) • 2015 – Dogtown Redemption (Documentary) (advisor) • 2016 – Independent Lens (TV series, documentary advisor for 1 episode)