Steven Camley

About

Steven Camley was born in 1961, and developed his drawing skills on a two-year design and illustration course at Glasgow's College of Building and Printing in the 1980s. 

In 1997 Camley began contributing political cartoons to Scotland on Sunday, and by 1998 he was also providing covers for New Statesman. In 1999 Camley began drawing political cartoons for the Glasgow Herald and providing the weekly "Backyard" strip for the Sunday Herald, and in 2000 he was elected Cartoonist of the Year in the Bank of Scotland Press Awards. In 2001 he was runner-up for Cartoonist of the Year in the Scottish Press Awards, and then won every year from 2008 to 2011, and again in 2013. Camley has also worked on the Big Issue.

Camley submits about five roughs a day to the Herald, from which the subject for the final cartoon is chosen. "Some days it's difficult", he admits: "On others a story comes in and it's like a gift from the gods...It's the immediacy which is the important thing. A writer may get 1000 words to argue their point, but as a cartoonist you have got to say what you have got to say."
 

Camley reportedly hates publicity, "preferring to hide away in his attic studio and shout at the rolling news". "I have always liked that anonymity", he explains: "As a cartoonist you are putting words in other people's mouths. You are not saying these things and you are slightly one step removed." However, in May 2013 he held his first solo exhibition "Fifty Shades of Glasgow" at the city's Smithy Gallery.

• Glasgow Herald, 18 May 2013, "Herald cartoonist embraces limelight in first solo display."