Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron was a pioneering British photographer born on June 11, 1815, in Calcutta, India. Recognized for her innovative and romantic portraits, Cameron's work gained significant acclaim posthumously, becoming iconic representations of the Victorian era. Her artistic journey began after a chance encounter with astronomer Sir John Herschel, who introduced her to photography during her time in South Africa. In 1863, she received her first camera as a gift, which led her to explore photography more seriously while her husband managed their coffee plantations.
Cameron's style was characterized by a soft focus that produced ethereal images, often inspired by literary and biblical themes. She famously portrayed notable figures such as Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and frequently drew upon Arthurian legends in her work. Despite facing challenges, including a lack of resources after moving to Sri Lanka, Cameron continued to capture striking images of her family and local scenes. Although she struggled for recognition during her lifetime, her contributions to photography are celebrated today, with her works featured in major exhibitions and collections worldwide, highlighting her lasting impact on the art form.
Julia Margaret Cameron
Photographer
- Born: June 11, 1815
- Place of Birth: Calcutta, India
- Died: January 26, 1879
- Place of Death: Sri Lanka
- Education: Versailles, France
Significance: British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron's short career produced elegant imagery that did not achieve much artistic recognition until well after her death. Her portraits of friends and celebrities became celebrated for their uniqueness and romantic themes. Cameron's portraits are some of the most renowned photographs of the Victorian era.
Background
Julia Margaret Cameron was born Julia Margaret Pattle on June 11, 1815, in the city of Calcutta in British-occupied India. Cameron's father worked for the East India Company and her mother descended from French nobility. She was the fourth of seven sisters, known for their beauty. Although Cameron was considered the plainest-looking of her sisters, she was also regarded as the most talented. She was known for her pleasantness and strange artistic endeavors. In her youth, she was educated at Versailles in France. Cameron returned to India after completing her studies. While recovering from an illness in the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, in 1836, Cameron had a fateful meeting with British astronomer Sir John Herschel. He later introduced Cameron to the process of photography. The two kept up a lifelong correspondence, during which they routinely discussed photography.
Cameron's stay in South Africa also introduced her to Charles Hay Cameron, a jurist twenty years her senior. The two married in 1838 and returned to Calcutta. Cameron's husband later invested in coffee plantations in Sri Lanka, making the family very wealthy. Cameron became a popular hostess among colonial Calcutta society and gained many rich and famous friends over the years. The family returned to England a decade after marrying, settling in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. Cameron began making photographs during her time at Freshwater, taking portraits of friends, family members, and servants. Cameron utilized a distinctive photography technique that intentionally produced out-of-the-ordinary images. Her methods confused most mainstream art critics, however, and her work was often considered too obscure for popular Victorian taste during her lifetime.
Life's Work
Cameron received a camera as a gift from her daughter in 1863. During this time, her husband was away tending to the coffee plantations in Sri Lanka, providing Cameron with plenty of downtime. Cameron had always been a fan of photography, and her children encouraged her to begin taking her own pictures. In her letters to Herschel, Cameron wrote of her newfound interest in photography and expressed her desire to elevate the medium to high art. Her initial experience with photography was a tedious one. Cameron had to teach herself how to operate the large camera model, which came with eleven-by-nine-inch glass photographic plates on which to record images. She also taught herself the chemistry of photo developing. Cameron later upgraded to a better camera with photo plates measuring fifteen by twelve inches. She chose her family and famous friends as her initial subjects. Her early portraits included the profiles of Herschel, evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin, and poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Cameron's technique involved using soft focus, which created a silky, dreamlike effect in her finished products.
Cameron's first photography exhibit was held at the South Kensington Museum in London in 1865. This was the only museum exhibition of her work during her lifetime. The South Kensington Museum, which was later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, collected many of Cameron's work directly from her and her family. Cameron's portraits earned her the most acclaim, but she also experimented with her subject matter. She often modeled her photos on literary or biblical themes. Cameron costumed her subjects to symbolize ideas such as virtue, wisdom, and piety. She was known to dress her parlor maids as Madonnas, her husband as the wizard Merlin, and her neighbor's children as angels or cupids. The English Arthurian legend was a favorite theme of Cameron's photography. She took hundreds of Arthurian-themed photographs throughout her career, many of which featured the characters of Lancelot and Guinevere. Tennyson used a few of these photographs for his poetry collection about King Arthur titled Idylls of the King.
Cameron was able to sell some of her photographs during a time of financial strain for the family. By the 1870s, her husband's coffee crops in Sri Lanka were failing. The family also suffered a blow in 1873 when their biological daughter died, halting Cameron's artistic eagerness. She and her husband moved back to Sri Lanka in 1875 to be near the plantations and their four sons. Following her relocation to Sri Lanka, Cameron faced a number of obstacles to her photography pursuits, such as a lack of clean water and processing chemicals. As a result, she produced fewer photos than she had in England. She managed to capture some images of the coffee plantation workers and Sri Lankan women in the few years after moving. Cameron became gravely ill and died in early 1879.
For the first time in nearly forty years, an exhibit was held displaying Cameron's photographs. Arresting Beauty: Julia Margaret Cameron took place in Paris at the Jeu de Paume in October 2023. More than one hundred photos were displayed.
Impact
Many of Cameron's portraits are the only surviving photographs of several historically significant people. She was one of the earliest photographers to give artistic value to her work, and her prints continue to be exhibited in museums around the world. A number of authors and critics have dedicated texts to Cameron's contribution to the field of photography.
Personal Life
Cameron and her husband produced five biological children: four sons and one daughter. They also adopted a sixth child, a girl named Mary Ryan. Cameron often took photographs of her family, including her niece Julia Duckworth, the mother of author Virginia Woolf.
Bibliography
Dawson, Jeff. "Names and Faces." New Yorker, 2 Sept. 2013, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/02/names-and-faces. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Higgins, Charlotte. "Julia Margaret Cameron: Soft-Focus Photographer with an Iron Will." Guardian, 22 Sept. 2013, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/22/julia-margaret-cameron-victorian-portrait-photographer-exhibitions. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Hyde, Sarah. "Photo Finish." Air Mail, 7 Oct. 2023, airmail.news/issues/2023-10-7/photo-finish. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
"Julia Margaret Cameron: Biography." Victoria and Albert Museum, www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/julia-margaret-cameron/julia-margaret-cameron-biography/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017.
"Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879)." Metropolitan Museum, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/camr/hd‗camr.htm. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
"Julia Margaret Cameron's Victorian Portrait Photography--In Pictures." Guardian, 22 Sept. 2015, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/sep/22/julia-margaret-cameron-portrait-photography-in-pictures. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Wood, Gaby. "Candid Cameron." Guardian, 2 Feb. 2003, www.theguardian.com/books/2003/feb/02/biography.highereducation. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.