Watts directing a commercial
In velvet slippers, no socks and a dinner jacket, photographer Ben Watts looked almost regal on the arm of his sister, Naomi Watts, as they ascended the red-carpeted stairs at this year’s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. Despite the ease, the talented lensman—an Aussie with a broad accent via Wales—feels more at home on Ditch Plains’ beach.
Watts is a Montauk enthusiast from way back, having used it first as a location for a J.Crew shoot in 1996. “Coming from Australia, it brought me back home a little bit,” he says. “The stretch of drive with the ocean view out over the trees reminds me of where I used to live in Wales as a kid.” He has also had many a special Montauk moment with his young daughter Ruby, “just trying to get her in the ocean.” Says Watts, “She even sleeps better out here.”
