Julia Margaret Cameron1815-1879

1815: Born in Kolkata

1836: Cameron meets Sir John Herschel whilst convalescing in South Africa. They become lifelong friends.

1839: The Daguerreotype process is revealed at the french Academy of Sciences.

1842: Herschel sends Cameron some examples of his experiments in photography.

1859: Cameron moves to the Isle of Wight

1864: Cameron is given her first camera by her daughter and son in law.

About

Cameron in Context

Techniques

Technology

Cameron used a “wet-collodion” processing technique that was invented in the 1850s to create her negatives and then printed them onto Albumen paper.

She processed all her pictures herself and you can see her craftsmanship in the photographs themselves.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/26gk5LFGSWZ9MkWMk5P5YMv/positive-force-the-pioneering-early-photography-of-julia-margaret-cameron

"From the first moment I handled my lens with a tender ardour and it has become to me as a living thing, with voice and memory and creative vigour."

https://youtu.be/Gyf8fQOdvDs

Techniques

Subject Matter

She pioneered soft focus photography and would take minutes long exposures using only natural light.

She would use a single light source from one window that was draped in yellow calico.

She exclusively photographed people.

Her subjects ranged from household servants to celebrity friends and neighbours.

“The studio, I remember, was very untidy and very uncomfortable. Mrs. Cameron put a crown on my head and posed me as the heroic queen. … The exposure began. A minute went over and I felt as if I must scream, another minute and the sensation was as if my eyes were coming out of my head; a third, and the back of my neck appeared to be afflicted with palsy; a fourth, and the crown, which was too large, began to slip down my forehead; a fifth—but here I utterly broke down, for Mr. Cameron, who was very aged, and had unconquerable fits of hilarity which always came in the wrong places, began to laugh audibly, and this was too much for my self-possession, and I was obliged to join the dear old gentleman.”

Artistic Influences : Allegorical CompositionsCameron attempted to emulate the great artists of the renaissance but she also reflected the artistic fashions of the time.

PortraitureCameron rejected “mere conventional topographic photography – map-making and skeleton rendering of feature and form”

Instead she attempted to capture the spirit and character of her models.

LegacyCameron’s work helped to make significant strides in the recognition of Photography as an art form.

The influence of her work is still seen today.