Solo 8 a Harrison Marks publications
|
|||||
| Kamera Publications Ltd. was formed in the early 1950’s by George Harrison Marks and his wife at the time Pamela Green with the idea of producing a new type of magazine featuring photos of beautiful women. And so ‘Kamera’, ‘Solo’ and the like were born. The girls who appeared in these classic little mags were all handpicked by George and Pamela and photographed by the master himself. It soon became apparent that this was to change the face of glamour photography, he and Pamela had an amazing capacity for choosing just the right type of girls to adorn the pages of their publications and many of these models became legendary in their own right. Pamela Green (yes, she was a model as well!), June Palmer, Paula Page, Lorraine Burnett, Vicky Kennedy, Marie Devereux and Rosa Dolmai to name but a few all became hugely popular. Glamour photography was only one of a number of professions that H M dabbled in. He was fascinated by the stage and cinema and hoped to turn his talents in this direction which he did in a number of ways. From a young age he was tutored and inspired by some great people through employment with film studios and theatrical agents, eventually opening his own small studio where actors and would-be models would go to have promotional shots and portfolios done. This, with the help and encouragement from his wife, Pamela, led to the idea of a magazine, the likes of which had never hit the magazines stands of Britain before. With hardly any capital and the promise of backing from a printer by the name of Jim Martin, the husband and wife team of Harrison Marks and Pamela Green published their very first magazine, Kamera, in the early 50’s. Within two days the 15,000 they had had printed sold out and within the next five weeks no less than 150,000 copies had been sold! The only thing that stopped this was the publication of the second edition. The rest is legend. Other series of photo magazines were to follow, including ‘Femme’, ‘Solo’ and ‘U.S. Glamour’ plus a number of Kamera specials including ‘Kamera Backstage’, ‘Kamera Glamour Guide’, ‘The Fabulous June Palmer’ and ‘Macabre’. He also produced a number of hardbacks including ‘Vera’, featuring the beautiful Vera Day, and ‘Kamera On Location’ both of which are very collectable with stunning content. He also proved to be a very talented film director and after much persuasion and pressure from outside sources (as, believe it or not, he felt he didn’t have enough talent for this type of work!), he put together the film version of ‘Naked - As Nature Intended’ which was an absolute smash and ran and ran for an age in the West End of London. Other films were to follow including the Mary Millington smash hit ‘Come Play With Me’ which he directed. Many more films followed, most of which were done on 8mm and intended for the home market - Wonderbed starring Monique was one of many hugely popular titles. Today, as more and more people are becoming sick and tired of the way ‘glamour’ has become, with no more of the mystery and romance of those magazines of yesteryear, the work of George Harrison Marks, Pamela Green and photographers such as Roye, Arthur Howell and Russell Gay are becoming more and more sought after and gathering new fans by the hundred, with magazines such as ‘Kamera’and ‘Solo’ turning out to be very collectable. |
 |
||||