How did a young Elam School of Fine Arts student with no particular passion for cars end up taking arguably the most evocative automobile photographs ever seen in this country? Random chance is the answer.
In 1974 Murray Cammick was a 20-year-old Auckland University student who had a passion for rock-band photography. This took him regularly into Auckland’s inner city on Friday and Saturday nights. His prey was the rich array of live rock venues that everyone took for granted back then. They included such legends as Mainstreet, The Glue Pot, His Majesty’s Theatre, The Windsor Castle, and many more. Murray’s prime love was the music scene and still is.
Exiting the clubs and rock venues as the bands packed up Murray often found himself on Queen Street late at night where he encountered a regular cult gathering of mainly 1950s and ’60s V8 American cars parked up or cruising the main chute of Auckland’s CBD into the wee small hours.
Murray was transfixed by the glint of extravagant chrome and drivers loudly demonstrating their V8s in various states of disrepair. He had stumbled on a fertile new arena for his dual love of Americana and night photography. In his photographic studies he had been seduced by master French photographer Brassaï’s superbly evocative night-time black-and-white images. Here was a chance to expand his métier.
Murray often found himself on Queen
