ATTENTION COLLECTORS - The Robert Cameron Portfolio printed by Tim Hall
San Franciscan ICON Mr. Robert Cameron was a best selling author, publisher and photographer of Above Books. Mr. Cameron used a four pound Pentax 6x7 and hung out (literally) from helicopters. As recently as August 2009, at the age of 98 and already legally blind, he was back over S.F. working and capturing a future classic S.F. aerial photograph when Lombard Street was turned for a day into Candy Land. For Mr. Cameron aerial photography was a labor of love.
In Mr. Cameron's own words: "I have been taking photographs since 1921 when I was a ten-year-old boy in Iowa and my father gave me a Kodak Brownie camera. I began my photographic career in 1933 as a news photographer for the Des Moines Register. I learned the art of aerial photography during World War II when I worked for the War Department photographing Midwestern military installations under construction. After a stint in business in New York, I moved to San Francisco where I published the first of four Above San Francisco books in 1969. Since then, Cameron and Company has published 22 Above books featuring great cities and sweeping landscapes from Hawaii to Paris. I’m still active at 96. My most recent book is Above Mexico City." R.C. 2007
Sadly, Mr. Cameron passed away November 10th, 2009. During his long photo publishing career he shared life adventures with Herb Caen, Bing Crosby, Pierre Sallinger, Ronald Reagan, Louie Armstrong amongst others. If in life as in death, we remain a part of the people we work and play with then Mr. Cameron's now in very good company. His ashes will be flown by helicopter and released over San Francisco, his favorite City by the Bay.
The portfolio includes some of Mr. Cameron's best captures including above photographs from ENGLAND and FRANCE, as well as CHICAGO, LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, WASHINGTON DC and YOSEMITE.