related searches intended to question Britain’s
postwar social and economic developments. The
Realist Movement sparked by France’s Cinema
Verite ́also echoed this need for identity politics to
hit the heart of local interests. Magazines were a
central distribution point supported by the thoughts
of editors who witnessed much of this public forum.
Photography proved crucial. Osman was dedicated
to reinterpreting this role for the negotiation of
photography’s artistic value.
Initially resembling a published newsletter in
design with a signature broad-bordered silver
cover,Creative Camerastood apart from other pub-
lications aimed at the fine-arts photography audi-
ence such asCamerawork,Aperture, andHistory of
Photography. Spreads featured aspiring British
photographers, but many of the photographers
were not of international repute and the magazine
struggled against international politics of quality.
Funding was an additional struggle given its mis-
sion to disclaim a technical practice in favor of
artistic directions. Still trying to abate commercial
aesthetics, the magazine struggled for innovative
advertising that could support its artistic aims.
Sponsorship rested mostly on subscriptions, indivi-
dual contributions, gallery and museum an-
nouncements, and its mail-order business. Articles
were separated from spreads and varied from press
releases to commentaries from the editorial staff
and internationally written responses about devel-
opments in photography and exhibitions.
The photography of Bill Brandt, which was
shown by Museum of Modern Art, New York
curator John Szarkowski in a landmark exhibition
at London’s Hayward Gallery (1970) and traveled
throughout England, proved inspirational for two
decades of photography thatCreative Camerafea-
tured. Among the published artists, Chris Killip
and Martin Parr emerged as the most prolific.
Straight photography was the main aesthetic
among British photographers, causing Creative
Camerato align in the 1970s with Szarkowski’s
famous curatorial vision for a defining emphasis
of twentieth century photography. His book,The
Photographer’s Eye(1966) and probably his closing
exhibition at MoMA, Photography Until Now
(1989), established modern photography’s appeal
as having a critical eye that was wholly pluralistic
by being unfettered by societal distinctions. The
magazine also reflected other areas of interest. In
England, nineteenth-century photography was
renewed in collections such as the Victoria and
Albert Museum’s collection during the 1970s and
was part of the quest to examine photography’s
artistic dimensions. As a result, articles inCreative
Cameraabout William Henry Fox Talbot and Julia
Margaret Cameron were keenly anticipated. The
popularity of American photographers Diane
Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander
initiated a second modernist style of straight
photography that assuaged aesthetics with a kind
of street smarts that matched the grain and ‘‘stylis-
tic grit’’ of Bill Brandt’s legacy and became another
following for many photographers displayed in
Creative Camera’spages.
One of the main issues working against the
magazine’s success was the separation between the
magazine’s articles and photographs. Creative
Camera’sreadership rose and fell with changes in
critical thought. The magazine’s editorial bent was
initially shaped by ideas based on Henri Cartier-
Bresson’s aesthetic of ‘‘the decisive moment.’’ A
synthesis of the theories of John Tagg and Szar-
kowski about societal systems then dominated the
magazine, which was followed with notions based
on Victor Burgin’sThinking Photography(1982)
and French philosophical concerns revolving
around deconstruction and semiotics. Burgin’s
highly influential conceptual photography and
writing, as distributed throughCreative Camera
and other venues, inspired a new generation of
artists who found their consciousness diversified
by greater immigration into England, which read-
dressed Britain’s colonial roots.
Rather than featuring genres like landscape or
street life, or the focusing on black and white
photography, in the pages of Creative Camera
artists such as American James Casebere, known
for his deserted interiors, Rineke Djikstra, Ratimi
Fani-Kyode, and Uganda-born Zarina Bhimji
grew in critical importance. Changes in social pol-
itics in general allowed the full effects of Burginian
and Foucaultian ideas to take affect upon the
magazine by 1986, when Colin Osman negotiated
his resignation in exchange for full revenue support
by The Arts Council of Great Britain. Redesign of
the magazine included transferring decisions from
the editorial staff to a board of directors. Selected
critics—Ian Jeffrey, Jo Spence, Rebecca Solnit, and
Geoffrey Batchen—exemplified this shift in editor-
ial perspectives to supplant newsboard aesthetics.
By the 1990s, Creative Camera resembled more
general art world publications likeArt in America
with its leading critical edge.
Creative Camerahonored its founding mission
its last issue: the February/March 2000 was a sour-CREATIVE CAMERA