Camp studied at Lowestoft and Ipswich Schools of Art and subsequently at Edinburgh College of Art. Between 1963 and 1988 he taught at the Slade School and in 1984 was elected as a Royal Academician.

Throughout his life the sea has played an important part in his work, from his early years in Lowestoft and then later in the 1960s when he moved to Hastings in Sussex near Beachy Head.