{{Short description|American photographer, archivist, curator, art historian, educator (b. 1946)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Lewis Watts | image = Lewis Watts (born 1946) in the video 'Presentation – Harlem of the West – The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era'.png | caption = Giving an online presentation in 2020 | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1946}} | birth_place = Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. | education = University of California, Berkeley | occupation = Photographer, archivist curator, author, educator }}
'''Lewis Watts''' (born 1946)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Watts, Lewis, 1946-|url=http://viaf.org/viaf/29242497|website=Virtual International Authority File database (VIAF)}}</ref> is an American photographer, archivist curator, art historian, author, lecturer, and educator. He is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz (U.C. Santa Cruz).
==Career== Lewis Watts was born in 1946 in Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Watts, Lewis|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/lewis_watts/|access-date=2021-10-31|website=SFMOMA|language=en-US}}</ref> 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).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=September 16, 2000|title=Lewis Watts: Photographs|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa155.htm|access-date=2021-10-31|website=tfaoi.com|publisher=Neuberger Museum of Art}}</ref> He had taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of California, Berkeley,<ref name=":0" /> 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,<ref name=":0" /> the Cité de la Musique (Paris, France), the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans, Louisiana), the Oakland Museum of California,<ref name=":0" /> the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, New York), the Amistad Center for Art and Culture (Hartford, Connecticut), Light Work (Syracuse, New York).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lewis Watts|url=https://lightwork.org/product/lewis-watts/|access-date=October 24, 2019|website=Light Work|date=January 1996|language=en-US}}{{Dead link|date=September 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Lewis Watts|url=http://www.spenational.org/|access-date=October 24, 2019|website=www.spenational.org}}</ref>
==Exhibitions== * 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
==Publications== * {{Cite book|last1=Watts|first1=Lewis|title=New Orleans Suite: Music and Culture in Transition|last2=Porter|first2=Eric|publisher=University of California Press|year=2013|isbn=9780520273870|location=Berkeley, California}} * {{Cite book|last1=Pepin Silva|first1=Elizabeth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3izgAQAACAAJ|title=Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era|last2=Watts|first2=Lewis|publisher=On The Water Front|year=2017|isbn=9780998670409}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Rothmann|first=John|date=2021-08-06|title=Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era|url=https://www.kgoradio.com/2021/08/06/harlem-of-the-west-the-san-francisco-fillmore-jazz-era/|access-date=2021-10-31|website=KGO-AM|language=en-US|archive-date=October 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031061602/https://www.kgoradio.com/2021/08/06/harlem-of-the-west-the-san-francisco-fillmore-jazz-era/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Filmography== * 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)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=nm2692463}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Lewis}} Category:Living people Category:African-American photographers Category:African-American contemporary artists Category:American contemporary artists Category:1946 births Category:Photographers from California Category:21st-century African-American people Category:20th-century African-American people Category:Artists from Little Rock, Arkansas