Images That Inspire

Lickshot is Ben Watts's highly personalized scrapbook and travel diary.

A triumph of lo-fi style, its pages are a delirious pastiche of gritty photographs, wonky Polaroids, and hand-scrawled graffiti, held together by slashes of colored tape. Its contents reflect the incredible variety of Watts's photographic subjects—from high school ice skaters, Brooklyn biker gangs, and lounging sunbathers to world-famous actors, supermodels, and today's hottest musicians. An interview with Watts by Vanity Fair editor Ingrid Sischy explores Watts's background and creative influences.

Ben Watts is a New York–based photographer who shoots advertising campaigns for Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Miller Lite, Kodak, the Gap, Sony Music, and Apple, and he is a regular contributor to numerous magazines, including the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Interview, Rolling Stone, VIBE, Esquire, Elle, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and Conde Nast Traveler. Watts has contributed to several group exhibitions and has had a solo exhibition at Milk Gallery in New York City.