Camera Owner
Bi-monthly British hobbyist photography periodical 1964-1968
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Camera Owner (1964–1968) was a bi-monthly British hobbyist photography magazine founded in 1964. In 1968 it evolved into Creative Camera, a monthly magazine of fine art and documentary photography, which in turn, in 2000, became DPICT before its publication ceased in 2001.
Camera Owner magazine, cover of the first issue, 1964 | |
| Editor | Bill Jay |
|---|---|
| Former editors | Jürgen Schadeberg |
| Frequency | Bi-monthly |
| Format | A4 |
| Publisher | Davpet Ltd., then Coo Press |
| Founder | Sylvester Stein |
| Founded | 1964 |
| First issue | 1 June 1964 |
| Final issue Number | 31 October 1967 no. 40, October 1967 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | London |
| Language | English |
| OCLC | 503854539 |
History
When Camera Owner was launched in 1964 from 27 Whitfield Street, London,[1] edited by Alec Fry ARPS[2] previously of Amateur Photographer magazine,[3] it offered pictorial 'how-to' articles for an audience ranging from the keen amateur to the dabbler with no interest in technical jargon; it was subtitled ‘The Teach-Yourself Photo Monthly’.[2]
From Issue #8 of February 1965 South African photographer Jürgen Schadeberg, picture editor of the influential Drum magazine in the 1950s, took over as picture editor, exercising a stronger design and a bolder use of pictures. By Issue #10, in April 1965, Fry moved on to establish Polysales Progress mail order firm, and Schadeberg took on the editorship.[4]
Reorientation
In July 1965, Bill Jay[5] had contributed two articles to the magazine and by December of the same year he took over as Editor. His aim was to promote British photography as a serious art form to rival the U.S. Aperture and Norman Hall's Photography, and the Swiss Romeo Martinez' Camera.[6] He instituted book reviews in 1966 (for example, of John Szarkowski's The Photographer's Eye, July 1967) and interviews (including with Aaron Siskind and David Douglas Duncan).[5] Magazine content emphasised the aesthetics of photography over technique, and Jay encouraged his readers to initiate 'postal circles' by circulating a boxed print by mail to a group for feedback.
Colin Osman,[7] himself a keen photographer, historian and collector of photography,[8][9][10][11][12] and owner of Coo Press, a publishing house with a long and lucrative history of racing pigeon publications, bought the failing Camera Owner from the publishers Davpet Ltd. for £1 in 1966.[13] Jay remained as editor and continued to change the style of the magazine,[14] so that it attracted more serious readers and contributors, amongst them young British photographers like David Hurn and Tony Ray-Jones.
Reformation
Jay gradually transformed the ‘hobbyist’ Camera Owner during 1967, with the word ‘Creative’, in a smaller font, being placed above the title ‘Camera Owner’, and ‘Owner’ reduced, by December, to a smaller font so that ‘Creative Camera’ dominated the masthead.[2] With the reorientation of content that Jay had introduced, the journal finally became Creative Camera alone in February 1968, continuing with that title through more than 30 years of publication.[15]