MAGAZINES:

KAMERA SPECIAL

SOLO

FEMME

IN FOCUS

US GLAMOUR

BETTY PAGE

KAMERA BACKSTAGE

THE FABULOUS
JUNE PALMER

AVEC PLAISIR

ICI PARIS

NUS FRANCAIS

FOTAQ

OUTDOOR STRIP

MACABRE

THE BEST OF KAMERA

HARRISON MARK'S GLAMOUR GUIDE

MAGNIFICENT MONIQUE

KAMERA WINTER SPECIAL

KANE

HARDBACKS:

PAMELA

KAMERA ON LOCATION

VERA

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

The first hardback book of Harrison Mark's photography was ‘Pamela’. Published by Luxor Press in 1955, before the advent of Kamera, it contained over fifty black and white studies of Pamela Green plus the colour portrait shown opposite. Most of the studies show Pamela with her natural, dark, hair colour, although a few include the wig that was later to be featured in the Rita Landre shots. The book includes photographs from George and Pamela's first location shoot in the Scilly Isles.

The more familiar blonde locks that came to be associated with Pamela were not in evidence in these photographs.

When the first issue of Kamera went to the printers in April, 1957 another location shoot in the Scilly Isles was undertaken. Much of the shoot was done on colour transparencies with other publications in mind. This time George and Pamela took along two of their models, Marie Deveraux and Lorraine Burnett. According to his promotional material Harrison Marks headed for ‘a group of islands just off the coast of Scotland'.

The income generated by Kamera following its launch in June 1957 changed the lives of George and Pamela. The success of the pocketbook encouraged them to produce many other publications including Kamera specials,  the famous Kamera Calendar, several other monthlies and a number of hardbacks.

The first of the photographs taken on the second Scilly Isles shoot appeared in a black and white advert inside the cover of Kamera No.3, which promoted a new 96 page hardback book called ‘Kamera on Location’ containing ‘120 superb figure studies’, which, it tells us, where ‘photographed in the rugged loveliness of a group of uninhabited islands’ – Harrison Marks was always a bit of a poet. The colour transparencies were duplicated onto 35mm slides and offered for sale as 12 different sets in the new 'Pamar Color Slides' series by Pamar Productions Ltd., another newly formed Harrison Marks and Pamela Green owned company, .

The first Kamera Special, an additional 64 page annual edition was published towards the end of 1957. The success of Kamera led to a spate of new Harrison Marks publications in 1958. ‘Solo’, a similar 32 page black and white format pocketbook to Kamera, but featuring just one model, was launched in mid 1958 and ran as a monthly, or sometimes bi-monthly, production until  June 1968, when No.61, the final issue, was produced. There is a separate page about Solo.

‘ In Focus’ was yet another title first published in 1958 and was identical in style and size to Kamera. Ostensibly published as a monthly it ran to at least Issue No.21. Then there was also 'US Glamour' - same format, which ran for at least 13 issues by the end of the fifties. No.5 featured Betty Page, who in addition got a 48 page special 'Betty Page Album' pocketbook.

Also in 1958 came the first issue of ‘Femme’. This was to become more of an annual, or perhaps bi-annual, addition to the range. This new publication was originally planned as a platform for other internationally known figure photographers such as Serge Jacque of Paris and Bunny Yeager of the USA. HM also published a separate pocketbook of Bunny Yeager photographs called The Diane Weber album.

At the beginning of 1959 came a one-off, 96 page, pocketbook titled ‘Kamera Backstage’. It offered a look behind the scenes and included some more casual shots including 20 pages of colour.

At some time during this period George, who was always an animal lover, found time to divert his skills to a completely different area of photography – cats – the four legged variety. He liked photographing cats. He had adopted a cat shortly after he moved into Gerrard Street where, later, a permanent public exhibition of his cat photographs occupied an area of the studio. In 1959 he was asked to take photographs for a forthcoming book about cats by Compton Mackenzie, ‘Cats’ Company’, which was published the following year.

'French Glamour', described as 'a companion to U.S. Glamour', was the first of a number of one-off, 32 page pocket books featuring the work of photographers from the continent. Circa 1961 another publishing/distribution company was formed, Gaffinia Publications, which, amongst other things took over publication of Femme briefly and also produced a series of 32 page, Kamera Style booklets featuring the work of three well known French photographers. These included ‘Avec Plaisir’ (With pleasure), 'Outdoor Strip', 'Ici Paris' , 'Fotaq' and 'Nus Francais'.

In 1962, a 64 page hardback book called ‘Vera’ was published featuring an excellent variety of photographs of actress and model Vera Day (see left).

But by 1962, the Harrison Marks focus was already turning away from stills photography towards the silver screen. Kamera Special No.3 appeared in late 1963, five years after No.2. Margaret Nolan features on the cover. In late '63/early '64 came another one-off pocketbook special 'The Fabulous June Palmer'.

Early 1964 saw the publication of another hardback, ‘She walks in beauty . . . .’,(left) described as '128 pages of studies on fine art paper and cloth bound for 50/- plus 2/6 postage and packing'. This book was originally planned as Kamera on Location 1964. However, Harrison Marks had finally decided on a more ambitious harback, large format book featuring not only new location material of June Palmer, Molly Peters, Sophia Dawn and Frankie Young taken in Cornwall in the Summer and Autumn of 1963, but addition photographs of Annette Johnson, Vicky Kenedy and Wendy Luton as well as some earlier, previously unpublished shots of other models including Marie Deveraux.

In 1965, 'The Best of Kamera - Edition1' was published offering 80 pages of selected photographs from previous issues of Kamera and the following year came 'The Best of Kamera - Edition 2'. In the Summer of '66 'Kamera on Location 1966' (below left) was published in pocketbook format .

1967 brought the launch of   'A brand new pocket book designed solely for the amateur photographer - Harrison Marks' 'Glamour Guide', which offered 'Over 300 individual photographs showing model poses used by Harrison Marks when photographing his models. An invaluable help to photographers specialising in this work.'.

There was one more special publication in 1967. 'Magnificent Monique', a 64 page pocket book in the usual format featuring Monique Deveraux (It accompanied an 8mm home movie of the same name). The last of the Kamera specials was the 1967 'Kamera Winter Special' (see right), featuring Dawn Grayson on the cover.

Finally there was a very offbeat title, ‘Macabre’ (see left), in which three female models, two fully clad in black leather outfits, the other in a negligee, stocking and suspenders, romped about a bedroom set together. It was quite out of keeping with any of the other publications of that period. It was associated with a HM glamour movie 1 & 2 Make Three  and it was the last of the one-off's.

In June of 1968, the last copies of the regular magazines rolled off the press. It was the end of an era and it was to be another fourteen turbulent years before Harrison Marks' attention would be back on publishing his own magazines.

You can find a more detailed account of Harrison Marks' publications on our CD 'A Collector's Guide to the Works of Harrison Marks ', which is available from our Online Store.