George Harrison Marks launched Kamera in 1957 and was published with a cover price of 2/6 (Around £2.75 at today’s prices). The original print run of 15,000 copies sold out within two days of the launch, so an immediate reprint had to be ordered. Again that sold out in days and, in all, over 150,000 copies of issue No.1 were sold in the first five weeks.

The photographs reproduced in Kamera were retouched, where necessary, to disguise any sign of the model’s pubic hair or genitals, in order to try and avoid the danger of falling foul of the British obscenity law, which was pretty ambiguous in those days. This was the case throughout the 12 years that the publication of Kamera spanned. The reader could have been forgiven for thinking that all the models had shaved off their pubic hair. In fact probably less than half of them had. 

Some of the models who appeared in Kamera – June Palmer, Paula Page, Lorraine Burnett, Vicky Kennedy, Marie Devereaux, Pat Rose and Rosa Dolmai – like Pamela Green, went on to become celebrities in their own right.

1958 appears to have been the peak year for Kamera, when, the full 12 monthly issues were produced. In 1959 there were 11, there were 9 issues in 1960, 7 in 1961 and in 1962 only 6 issues seemed to have been produced. For 1963 through 1967 output was back to around eight.*

The success of Kamera also spawned the creation of a Kamera Calendar each year.  The Calendars themselves became very popular and were regularly found hung up in garage waiting rooms, restrooms and workshops and today are sought after by avid collectors.

* Text modified from Harrison Marks Official Website 

Kamera Magazine

Kamera Calendar & Specials