A CONVERSATION WITH DONALD E. CAMP
On Friday, March 27, 2015, Susanna W. Gold and Rachel McCay met with artist Donald E. Camp to discuss his work. SUSANNA W. GOLD: Donald, we’re interested
calendars, on postcards, and in other formats like
in your work, in part because it is so hard to
that. So I knew that there was some representation
categorize. You are a photographer who works like
of black artists in print form, even though I didn’t
a printmaker. Of course, photography is a form of
really consider my work as a photographer as
printmaking, which has a rich history among black
relating specifically to those materials. My mother
artists in Philadelphia. It goes back to the nineteenth
was very interested in the arts, and promoted them
century, when Henry Ossawa Tanner was working
in our home. She was a vocal artist, an incredible
in the medium, and was strengthened later in the
singer. She gave concerts in the area and had offers
1930s with the Works Progress Administration’s
to sing and travel with national groups. But because
(WPA) Fine Print Workshop. Were you aware of or
she had a very hard childhood, her obligation was
inspired by this long history of printmaking when
to stay with her family and raise the children. But
you first began photographing?
she always encouraged us to do creative things.
DONALD E. CAMP: No. I didn’t think specifically
about that. But when I was a kid, I did see the work of Jacob Lawrence and other black artists in
One of my brothers, Herbert, was the first in our family to graduate from college. He went to Columbia University and got his degree in fine art. I was the youngest, about eight years old at the time, when I got to see all the things he brought home. I remember getting into his art history books, and when he caught me, I thought I was going to get in trouble for bothering his stuff. But instead, he took the time to explain to me all the schematics I didn’t understand—how to balance a print or other pieces of art according to its color mass and the weight of color. So I learned that very early, and it became a very strong part of my visual vocabulary. RACHEL MCCAY: What kind of work was
Herbert doing? CAMP: Herbert was a very strong painter, but he
ended up in Trinidad doing ceramics. He always The Disciples See Christ Walking on Water, 1907, by Henry Ossawa Tanner (Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations) Photography courtesy of the New York Public Library
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WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
loved the earth and always loved ceramics, but continued to make paintings as well. He came back from Trinidad because he was very sick, and
Brother Who Taught Me to See/Herbert Camp (from the Dust Shaped Hearts series), 2006, by Donald E. Camp (Collection of Lewis Tanner Moore) Photograph by Joe Painter WE SPEAK: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s–1970s
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