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| Camera Craft | |
|---|---|
| Title | Camera Craft |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Format | |
| Publisher | Paul Wing (founder); later Camera Craft Publishing Company |
| Firstdate | 1900 |
| Finaldate | 1942 |
| Country | United States |
| Based | San Francisco, California |
| Language | English |
Camera Craft
Camera Craft was an influential American monthly magazine devoted to photography and photographic technique published in San Francisco from 1900 to 1942. It served practitioners and enthusiasts by covering equipment, processes, portraiture, landscape, pictorialism, and emerging trends in photojournalism and commercial photography. The magazine intersected with major photographic figures, institutions, and movements of the early 20th century, shaping practice and discourse across the United States and beyond.
Founded at the turn of the century by Paul Wing and associates in San Francisco, Camera Craft emerged alongside contemporaries such as Popular Photography, Camera Work, Photographic Times and American Annual of Photography. Its lifespan encompassed major events including the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, World War I, the Great Depression, and the lead-up to World War II, all of which influenced photographic practice and readership. The magazine chronicled shifts from pictorialism associated with groups like the Photo-Secession and figures such as Alfred Stieglitz to modernist and documentary approaches connected to Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art. Publication ceased in 1942 as paper shortages and changing market dynamics affected many specialty periodicals.
Camera Craft was produced by the Camera Craft Publishing Company in San Francisco and maintained a monthly schedule. Editors and contributors included local and national practitioners connected to studios, colleges, and clubs such as the San Francisco Camera Club, the Royal Photographic Society, and the Photographic Society of America. The editorial stance balanced technical instruction with aesthetic discussion, publishing articles on lenses and plates alongside essays on composition by photographers connected to Institute of Design-style modernism and academies like the Art Institute of Chicago. Advertisers included manufacturers such as Eastman Kodak Company, Kodak, Leica, Rolls-Royce-era camera vendors, and optics firms akin to Zeiss. Coverage linked salon exhibitions at venues like the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and commercial assignments for publications such as Harper's Bazaar and The Saturday Evening Post.
Typical issues combined technical articles on darkroom techniques, printing processes like platinum and gum bichromate, plate and film reviews, and test reports on lenses and shutters. Features reviewed equipment from makers comparable to Graflex, Rolleiflex, Voigtländer, and Nikon-era innovators, while profiling pictorial and straight photographic work connected to practitioners in movements exemplified by Pictorialism, Modernism, and documentary traditions linked to Farm Security Administration photographers. Regular columns addressed studio management, portrait lighting techniques used by portraitists associated with studios in New York City and Los Angeles, and critical commentary on exhibitions at institutions such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The magazine included portfolios, step-by-step tutorials, and reader-submitted images judged in contests similar to those run by Royal Photographic Society salons.
Camera Craft published articles, portfolios, and how-to pieces by a wide array of practitioners and critics. Contributors ranged from local West Coast figures tied to the San Francisco Art Institute and the California School of Fine Arts to nationally prominent photographers and writers associated with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston. Other contributors included commercial and press photographers connected to outlets like Life (magazine), National Geographic Society, and Time (magazine), as well as educators from institutions such as the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Columbia University journalism school. The magazine also printed work by salon photographers affiliated with Pictorial Photographers of America and members of the Photographic Society of America.
Within photographic circles Camera Craft was regarded as a practical and authoritative source, influencing studio practices, teaching curricula at schools like the Art Institute of Chicago and Rochester Institute of Technology, and the tastes of amateur clubs including the Camera Club of New York. Reviews in contemporaneous periodicals and responses from readers reflected its role in debates between pictorialists and modernists, connecting to critical dialogues involving Alfred Stieglitz's circle and critics at the Museum of Modern Art. The magazine’s technical guidance impacted commercial photography commissioning by retailers and publishers including Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogs and fashion spreads in magazines such as Vogue. Its coverage of equipment influenced purchasing decisions tied to manufacturers like Eastman Kodak Company and optics firms analogous to Carl Zeiss AG.
Back issues of Camera Craft survive in institutional collections and archives, including holdings at libraries and museums such as the Library of Congress, the George Eastman Museum, the San Francisco Public Library, and university special collections like those at Rochester Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley. Microfilm, digitized scans, and bound volumes circulate through interlibrary loan networks used by scholars researching figures connected to Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and movements archived at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Collectors and dealers in photographic ephemera trade complete runs, while academic courses in photographic history at universities like Columbia University and Yale University reference Camera Craft materials for primary-source study.
Category:Photography magazines Category:Publications established in 1900 Category:Publications disestablished in 1942