{{short description|Ecclesiastical photographer and programmer}} {{Use British English|date=May 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox person | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FSA}} | name = Cameron Newham | other_names = C. B. Newham | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1965|8|12}} | birth_place = South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | education = Camberwell Grammar School, Scotch College, Perth | alma_mater = University of Western Australia (BSc, 1987) | occupation = Ecclesiastical photographer, programmer | known_for = Documenting England's rural parish churches | website = [https://www.parishchurches.org parishchurches.org] }}
'''Cameron Newham''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA}} (born 1965) is an Australian-born British photographer, author, and independent heritage documentarian. He is best known for his ongoing effort to photograph every rural parish church in England, a project that has spanned more than two decades and produced over 500,000 images from more than 9,000 churches.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Addley |first=Esther |date=2019-12-27 |title=Australian on mission to photograph every parish church in England |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/27/australian-on-mission-to-photograph-every-parish-church-in-england |access-date=2025-05-12 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Laing |first=Jemima |date=2009-09-03 |title=A photographic labour of love |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8235000/8235853.stm |access-date=2025-05-12 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB |archive-date=12 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250512160020/http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8235000/8235853.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Howse |first=Christopher |date=2019-07-27 |title=Sacred Mysteries: One man's photographs of 9,000 rural churches |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2019/07/27/sacred-mysteriesone-mans-photographs-9000-rural-churches/ |access-date=2025-05-12 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=12 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250512160014/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2019/07/27/sacred-mysteriesone-mans-photographs-9000-rural-churches/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Biography== Born in South Yarra, Melbourne, on 12 August 1965, Newham was educated at Camberwell Grammar School and Scotch College, Perth, before completing a BSc in information technology and geography at the University of Western Australia in 1987. He began his career as a software engineer with Australian Defence Industries in 1989 and, during that period, co-authored ''Learning the Bash Shell'' for O’Reilly Media.<ref name="bio">{{cite web |last=Newham |first=C. B. |title=About C B Newham |url=https://www.parishchurches.org/bio |access-date=11 June 2025 |website=The Parish Church Photographic Survey}}</ref>
Newham relocated to the United Kingdom in 1996 from Perth, Western Australia and has since held a range of information-technology posts, including positions at Nomura Research Institute, Macromedia and the British Library, while pursuing large-scale photographic fieldwork.<ref name="bio" />
Newham began photographing rural parish churches in 1997, and was initially inspired by the architectural guides of Nikolaus Pevsner, later drawing on the early-20th-century books of John Stabb after encountering them during a 2007 project on Devon churches. His project gradually expanded to include the detailed documentation of church architecture, sculpture and interior features such as pre-1900 monuments, fonts and wall paintings.<ref name=":2" /> By the mid-2020s, Newham had photographed more than 9,000 churches and compiled an archive exceeding 500,000 images.<ref name=":0" /> His work has been used by scholars in the fields of medieval architecture, sculpture and funerary art. Newham's photographs of knightly effigies were featured in Tobias Capwell’s monograph ''Armour of the English Knight 1400–1450'', and were praised for offering overhead views that emulate a devotional perspective.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Warren |first=Jeremy |date=2016-01-23 |title=Armour from God's point of view |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2016/01/23/armour-from-gods-point-of-view |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250512160019/https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2016/01/23/armour-from-gods-point-of-view |archive-date=12 May 2025 |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=The Art Newspaper}}</ref> Newham has also contributed to the Post-Reformation Wall Painting Project (PRWP), a scholarly initiative cataloguing later church murals in England.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pridgeon |first=Ellie |date=2015-02-05 |title=PRWP App |url=https://postreformationwallpaintingproject.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/prwp-app/ |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=Post-Reformation Wall Painting Project |archive-date=12 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250512160019/https://postreformationwallpaintingproject.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/prwp-app/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Newham’s 728-page book entitled ''Country Church Monuments'', published in 2022, received notice across both popular and academic press; reviewers in the ''Literary Review'', ''The Times'', ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Antiquaries Journal'' highlighted its authoritative commentary, comprehensive scope and high quality photography of 365 rural monuments.<ref name="Andrew20222">{{cite magazine |last=Andrew |first=Nigel |date=November 2022 |title=Graven in Stone: ''Country Church Monuments'' |url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/graven-in-stone |access-date=11 June 2025 |magazine=Literary Review}}</ref><ref name="Wells20222">{{cite news |last=Wells |first=Emma J |date=7 December 2022 |title=''Country Church Monuments'' by CB Newham review – withered corpse or marble baby? |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/country-church-monuments-by-cb-newham-review-xg09tl59m |access-date=11 June 2025 |newspaper=The Times}}</ref><ref name="Howse20222">{{cite news |last=Howse |first=Christopher |date=2 October 2022 |title=Take a tomb-crawl of England's weirdest country church monuments |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/take-tomb-crawl-englands-weirdest-country-church-monuments/ |access-date=11 June 2025 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref><ref name="Wilson20232">{{cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Jean |date=October 2023 |title=Review of ''Country Church Monuments'' |journal=The Antiquaries Journal |volume=103 |pages=456–457 |doi=10.1017/S0003581523000306 |via=Cambridge Core}}</ref>
==Selected works== * {{cite book |last1=Newham |first1=Cameron |last2=Rosenblatt |first2=Bill |title=Learning the bash Shell |edition=3rd |date=March 2005 |publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc. |isbn=9780596009656}} * {{cite book |last1=Newham |first1=C. B. |title=Some Old Devon Churches: A Tribute to John Stabb |date=2009 |publisher=DAE Publishing |language=en |isbn=9781906265014}} * {{cite book |last1=Newham |first1=C. B. |title=Country Church Monuments |date=6 October 2022 |publisher=Particular Books |language=en |isbn=9780241488331}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/explore/story/cb-newham National Churches Trust: #ChurchExplorer]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newham, Cameron}} Category:Living people Category:English photographers Category:Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Category:People from South Yarra, Victoria Category:1965 births