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== ''DPICT'' and cessation ==
== ''DPICT'' and cessation ==
A compilation of articles ''Creative Camera: Thirty Years of Writing'' edited and published in 1999 by Brittain provides a survey of significant British perspectives on what constituted 'art photography', on the succession of movements and surrounding theory, the rise and prominence of certain practitioners, the question of social use, and changes in technology that had been debated in the pages of the magazine over its period. In response to the latter issue as manifested in the emerging digital technology, Brittain changed the name to ''DPICT'' in January 2000. The magazine folded eighteen months later.
Brittain changed the name to ''DPICT'' in January 2000 in response to emerging digital technology. The magazine folded eighteen months later.


== Influence ==
== Influence ==

Revision as of 08:35, 2 September 2019

Creative Camera (also known as "CC") was a monthly magazine devoted to fine art photography and documentary photography. The successor to the very different (hobbyist) magazine Camera Owner (which had started in 1964), Creative Camera was published in England between 1968 and 2001.[1]

Background

The origin of Creative Camera was Camera Owner, subtitled 'the teach-yourself photo monthly' first published by Sylvester Stein in June 1964 and which was edited, from Issue #10, in April 1965, by another South African Jurgen Schadeberg, a photojournalist who had worked with Tom Hopkinson and as picture editor of Drum magazine. He instituted a stronger cover design and integrated pictures more prominently into the internal layout.[2]

Bill Jay, whose articles featured in the July 1965 Camera Owner, took over editorship in December of the same year.[3] The publishers Davpet Ltd. announced that the magazine was folding. In May 1966 Colin Osman (August 16, 1926–April 12, 2001),[4] publisher of Coo Press that produced The Racing Pigeon founded by his grandfather Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Henry Osman (responsible for pigeon training and organisation during World War One) with tens of thousands of subscribers,[5] purchased Camera Owner for £1. Osman's father William had recruited two thousand amateur pigeon fanciers to provide birds for a Special Continental Pigeon Service, MI14(d), a branch of Military Intelligence (MI16) in WW2.[5]

Editorship

Jay gradually exchanged Camera Owner's audience of camera club members for more serious photographers and photojournalists; in 1967 he added 'Creative', in a smaller font, to the title 'Camera Owner', and by December substituted a smaller type size for 'Owner' so that the words 'Creative Camera' dominated the masthead.

In February 1968 the journal became Creative Camera, with a distinctive wide-bordered silver cover featuring a centred monochrome image, in contrast to Camera Owner's full colour, the black-and-white photograph being the medium of serious art and street photography, and some documentary work, of the period. Picture spreads, with usually a full page devoted to each image, were separated form articles that included press releases, editorial and opinion pieces, and British and international commentators' responses to developments in photography and current exhibitions.[6]

Jay was paid little for his editorship and supported the position with lectures to camera clubs, part-time teaching at Harrow, Croydon and the London College of Printing and, with Osman, conducted four-guinea two-day photography workshops for hobbyists at an Essex retreat.[2] Jay as early as 1969 was courting Arts Council funding for the magazine.[7]

Jay left after differences with Osman in December 1969[8] to set up a short lived luxury periodical Album (1970–1971), and in January 1970 Colin Osman, drawing on his photo-historical interests[9][10][11][12][13] and amateur photography, became editor. He was joined by Peter Turner, first as Assistant Editor and then as Co-Editor.[14]: 8  Turner, like Jay who suggested he take the job,[15] had studied photography at the Guildford School of Art (1965–1968) before becoming a journalist for SLR magazine.

At its original location at his grandfather's house at 19 Doughty Street Osman established a gallery, bookstore and a book-order company specialising in the photographers featured in the publication. When it purchased Mansfield Books International its mail-order business expanded such that it rivalled the largest book holdings in photography of the late 1960s and early 1970s.[6] In addition to the magazine, Creative Camera published five hardbound Yearbooks over 1975 to 1979.

Turner left in 1978, and was replaced by Judy Goldhill.[14]: 12  Replacing Mark Holborn, Susan Butler was coeditor from 1984 to 1986.[14]: 12–13  Turner became editor again in 1986, on the occasion of Osman's sale of the magazine.[14]: 14  Turner resigned in 1991 and David Brittain took over.[14]: 17 

DPICT and cessation

A compilation of articles Creative Camera: Thirty Years of Writing edited and published in 1999 by Brittain provides a survey of significant British perspectives on what constituted 'art photography', on the succession of movements and surrounding theory, the rise and prominence of certain practitioners, the question of social use, and changes in technology that had been debated in the pages of the magazine over its period. In response to the latter issue as manifested in the emerging digital technology, Brittain changed the name to DPICT in January 2000. The magazine folded eighteen months later.

Influence

Helmut Gernsheim in a May 1977 interview noted the tendency for young European photographers to look toward America as the source of contemporary and avant-garde imagery, while Americans remained ignorant of European developments of "new objectivity, of photojournalism, fotoform, and subjective photography", with "only Creative Camera, being in English...seen in the United States".[16]

Amanda Hopkinson, writing in The Guardian, called it an "immensely influential magazine".[17]

The New New

In 1990, the photographers Henry Bond and Richard Burbridge guest edited a double issue showcasing emerging British photographers—"The New New" issue, October–November. The selection they made included the first published examples of photo-based artworks by Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst and Angus Fairhurst.[18][19] Bond's collaboration with the magazine continued as an ongoing series of artists' pages that ran as "openers"—appearing on the inside front cover and contents page. One spread, created by Hirst, depicted the mutilated corpse of a young man with wounds to the eyes, and was captioned 'Damien Hirst: Fig. 60 Self-inflicted injuries...'; another introduced Fairhurst's self-portrait 'Man Abandoned by Colour.'[20][21]

Notes

  1. ^ Bill Jay, "What Happened Here?: Photography in Britain since 1968. Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine" Conference at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, England, 14 October 2004.
  2. ^ a b "Creative Camera – The Golden Fleece". web.archive.org. 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
  3. ^ David Allan Mellor, "A Contextual Chronology", p.150. In David Allan Mellor, ed., No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–87: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection (London: Hayward, 2007; ISBN 978-1-85332-265-5).
  4. ^ Hopkinson, Amanda (2002-04-16). "Obituary: Colin Osman". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  5. ^ a b Jon Day, 'Operation Columba', review of Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera. In London Review of Books Vol. 41 No. 7, 4 April 2019, pages 15-16
  6. ^ a b Warren, Lynne; Warren, Lynn (2005), Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set, Taylor and Francis, ISBN 978-0-203-94338-0
  7. ^ Peres, Michael R (2013), Focal encyclopedia of photography : digital imaging, theory and applications, history, and science (4th ed. / Michael R. Peres, editor-in-chief ed.), Focal Press, ISBN 978-1-136-10613-2
  8. ^ Brittain, David; Cahill, Clinton (2013). Inside Photography: Ten Interviews with Editors. Stockport: Dewi Lewis. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-1-907893-46-9. Following my ouster from 'Creative Camera'
  9. ^ Osman, Colin (1999). Jerusalem caught in time. Garnet Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85964-120-0.
  10. ^ Osman, Colin (1997). Egypt : caught in time. Garnet. ISBN 978-1-873938-95-9.
  11. ^ Englander, David A; Osman, Colin; Arts Council of Great Britain (1981). The British worker photographs of working life 1839-1939. Arts Council of Great Britain. ISBN 978-0-7287-0280-6.
  12. ^ Rodger, George; Osman, Colin; Caiger-Smith, Martin (1987). Magnum opus : fifty years in photojournalism. Nishen. ISBN 978-1-85378-001-1.
  13. ^ Vargas, Ava; Vargas, Ava, 1952- (1986). La casa de cita : Mexican photographs from the Belle Epoque. Quartet. ISBN 978-0-7043-2578-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ a b c d e David Brittain, "Mirror with a Memory: Thirty Years of Writing in Creative Camera"; in David Brittain, ed., Creative Camera: Thirty Years of Writing.
  15. ^ "Kiss the Past Goodbye – Peter Turner". The Golden Fleece. 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
  16. ^ Cooper, Thomas Joshua, 1946-; Hill, Paul, 1941-; Camera (Lucerne) (1979), Dialogue with photography, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, ISBN 978-0-374-13893-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ Hopkinson, Amanda (5 August 2009). "Bill Jay: Photographer who found a niche as an advocate of his art". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  18. ^ See artists' pages, p. 2-3; 16-45; and images accompanying scholarly essay, Andrew Renton, "Disfiguring: Certain New Photographers and Uncertain Images," p. 16-21.
  19. ^ Also see the comments on that issue made by David Brittain in his Obituary of fellow Creative Camera editor, i.e., David Brittain, "Peter Turner 1947-2005," Afterimage, Sept-Oct, 2005.
  20. ^ See: Creative Camera issues 309/310/311/312. A comprehensive database of the magazine contents on hwwilsonweb.com (athens signin required).
  21. ^ Facsimiles of the pages on Bond's archive, i.e., Hirst (Issue 309, April–May 1991, p. 2-3); Fairhurst (Issue 312, October–November 1991, p. 2-3).

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