Camera Press
{{Short description|British picture agency}}
Camera Press is a photographic picture agency founded in London in 1947 by Jewish Hungarian Tom Blau, a portrait photographer{{cite web|url=http://www.britishphotography.org/artists/19170/statement/tom-blau|title=Tom Blau Statement - Hyman Collection - British Photography|website=www.britishphotography.org|access-date=2018-08-02|archive-date=2018-08-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802162630/http://www.britishphotography.org/artists/19170/statement/tom-blau|url-status=live}} of major contemporary political figures, musicians and film stars, {{Citation | author1=Blau, Tom | title=In and out of focus | publication-date=1983 | publisher=Elm Tree Books | isbn=978-0-241-11058-4 }} who, in 1935, migrated from Berlin where he was born and lived, becoming a naturalised British citizen (also in 1947.)
Historic archive
The Camera Press archive is of historic importance, the agency having represented among others Antony Armstrong-Jones, Patrick Lichfield, Cecil Beaton, Norman Parkinson, Thurston Hopkins, Baron (photographer) and Yousuf Karsh, whom Blau had signed on as the agency's first photographer.Charlotte Jansen (2017) 'Inner workings: picture agency Camera Press toasts 70 years in the business'. Wallpaper, May 19, 2017 Baron's first assignment for the agency was the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II; Blau was the first to distribute pictures of the event.
It also counted among its members lesser known photographers, such as Hedda Morrison in Sarawak, and mountaineer Alfred Gregory, whose work in distant parts of the British Commonwealth were of interest to the picture magazines thriving in the 1950s.
Each decade is represented in the collection with some of the best known celebrities: Steve Emberton's picture of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen at Vicious’ Maida Vale home in 1978; Clive Arrowsmith’s Kate Bush in 1980, Madonna, and Public Enemy in the 1990s.
In 2007 Daryl Bradford took over management of the agency from Roger Eldridge, former managing director who had joined the agency as an editor in 1969 and who died suddenly, at 63 years old, on the way to a radio interview about the 60th anniversary of Camera Press.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/nov/13/obituaries.guardianobituaries|title=Obituary: Roger Eldridge|first=Jacqui Ann|last=Wald|date=13 November 2007|website=the Guardian|access-date=2 August 2018|archive-date=2 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802132027/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/nov/13/obituaries.guardianobituaries|url-status=live}} Other former managing directors of the agency included Donald Chapman and Jon Blau.
Emma Blau's photograph of Basement Jaxx appeared in an exhibition she curated of Camera Press imagery Camera Press at 70 – A Lifetime in Pictures which was held May 17–June 10, 2017 at the Bermondsey Project Space, 183-185 Bermondsey Street, London.{{cite web|url=http://project-space.london/event/camera-press-at-70-a-lifetime-in-pictures|title=Camera Press at 70 - A Lifetime in Pictures - Bermondsey Project Space|publisher=|access-date=2018-08-02|archive-date=2018-08-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802041101/http://project-space.london/event/camera-press-at-70-a-lifetime-in-pictures|url-status=live}}
Gallery
When Camera Press moved to Butlers Wharf near Tower Bridge from their original premises in Russell Square in March 1993 the agency opened and ran the Tom Blau Gallery at 21 Queen Elizabeth Street, London SE1 to exhibit photographers including Roger Bamber, Robert Whittaker, Gemma Levine and Marcus Lyon. In 1996 it became an independent charity and appointed a new director Keith Cavanagh.Tom Blau Gallery goes solo. British Journal of Photography August 14, 1996; 143, 7089. pg. 5 Emma Blau took over as Director of the Gallery in 2002 and in 2004 it became The Camera Press Gallery and changed focus to concentrate on showcasing its own photographers’ work.British Journal of Photography, December 8, 2004; 151, 7510; pg. 6
References
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External links
- {{official|https://www.camerapress.com/about-us }}
Category:1947 establishments in the British Empire
Category:Mass media companies established in 1947