The Photography of Craig Morey

Craig Morey was born and raised in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in the Midwestern U.S. He attended Indiana University from 1970 thru 1974 and studied with the noted Bauhaus artist, Henry Holmes Smith.
He soon migrated to California and with a group of other young photographers founded San Francisco Camerawork, a gallery devoted to showing the newest and most innovative photography. He served as Executive Director of this nonprofit photo center until 1981

During this time, Morey was working on and exhibiting abstract and whimsical black & white nudes. This body of work was well received and garnered several awards, including a Special Jury Prize at the International Triennial of Photography in Friebourg, Switzerland, and First Prize at the California State Exposition. A solo exhibition of Morey’s work was named among the “Best Shows of ’82” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He was also named one of five worldwide “Discoveries” by the editors of Time-Life’s Photography Year 1981.

In 1981, Morey left San Francisco Camerawork to pursue a free-lance photography career. His clients have included magazines such as Architectural Digest, San Francisco Focus, California Magazine, Interview, Newsweek, Cupido, and Penthouse. He also works for corporate clients, including Apple Computer, The Gap, Levi Strauss, Avon, Neutrogena and Wells Fargo Bank.

But it has been Morey’s extensive work with female nudes which has caught the attention of editors, art directors and the general public during the 80’s and 90’s. His classic black & white nudes appeared as a regular feature in Penthouse publications in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Creative vice-president, Don Myrus, called Morey “the E.J. Bellocq of the 1990’s”.

In addition, a book of selections from his Penthouse assignments, Studio Nudes, was published in the fall of 1992. A second volume, BODY/EXPRESSION/SILENCE, was released in Japan in 1994. Morey’s new collection of nudes, LINEA, has recently been released by Korinsha Press of Kyoto, and is now available.

All images copyright 1996, Craig Morey  Please do not distribute or modify without his express permission.

Visit Mr. Morey’s Site

[View with PicLens]