Julia Margaret Cameron

(The photograph here shows Alice Liddell as an adult - the inspiration for the Alice stories by Lewis Carroll)

Julia Margaret Cameron (née Pattle) was born in Calcutta, India in 1815. Her father was a Bengal-born Scots, her mother a member of the French Aristocracy who had fled the Revolution. Following the early death of both her parents, Julia Margaret and her sisters went to live with their grandmother in France where they received a formal education. The girls eventually moved to England where they tended to gravitate towards the artistic strata of society - comfortable in the company of poets, writers and painters - often organising social gatherings and entertaining in flamboyant style.

In 1838 at the age of 23 Julia was married to Charles Hay Cameron, a prominent figure in the legal service and at the time stationed overseas in India, then part of the British Empire. Twenty years her senior, after his retirement he took his wife to live at 'Dimbola Lodge' in Freshwater, England - close to the home of the great English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

See Tennyson's poem 'The Lady of Shalott'

Her husband continued to have business interests abroad, however, and notably in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) and so would often be absent, leaving his wife alone for extended periods. Nevertheless, they managed to have eleven children in all. In England, Julia Margaret continued to lead a relatively unconventional life for a woman of the Victorian era and devoted much of her time to the establishment of a artistic and literary salon at her home.

In 1864, at the age of forty-eight, one of her daughters presented her with a camera (then a relatively new invention) as a gift. She began to take photographs with a passion from that day forth, becoming expert in the use of what is called the 'collodion wet-plate process.'

Within a year, Julia Margaret had became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. She made extensive alterations to her home to accommodate her new hobby, converting an old coalhouse into a darkroom and a chicken shed into a studio with windows that allowed her to control and regulate the light. Over subsequent years she developed an unique style - her images often slightly out of focus to emphasise the emotional dimension of her subjects.

For models she used friends, servants and neighbours. Many of these were prominent figures of the times, including the scientists Charles Darwin and John Herschel, and the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. Her associations with artists from the Pre-Raphaelite school, meanwhile, immediately became apparent in her unique style of photographic portraiture which became atmospheric, moody and often highly allegorical.

She was an accomplished mistress of self-promotion and was also very well-connected. This led in 1865 to the first one-person exhibition of her photographs in London and also a presentation of a collection of her photographs to the British Museum. Throughout the 1860s she continued to produce numerous portraits of 'famous men and fair women' for which she has become justly renowned. In 1874, the great Victorian poet Tennyson commissioned her to provide illustrations to his 'Idylls of the King and Other Poems.'

She left England in 1875 with her husband, to move with him permanently to Sri Lanka where she continue her photography. She died in Sri Lanka in 1879.

(This stunning photograph depicts the historical figure of Beatrice Cenci, and was modelled in 1870 by May Prinsep)

In Julia Margaret's day, film had yet to be invented, and she had to work with large glass-plate negatives - which meant that her sitters would have to sit still for very long periods of time - minutes rather than seconds. Consequently, many of her images often appear soft and out of focus. This was not considered to be a problem, however. Because of the newness of photography in the 1860s, Julia Margaret was free to follow her own instincts in this respect and not to be bound by any rules or customs. Any established photographic conventions that already existed could be swept aside, and usually were.

The use to which photography was being directed in its early days was largely to record the world with greater and greater accuracy with each advance in technology that came along. And yet clarity and fine detail were of little interest to Julia Margaret. She wanted, instead, to re-direct her camera back towards depicting the emotional state of her subjects. She wanted photography to be regarded as an art form rather than a means of simply recording detail as was current in the sharply focused documentary photographs of the time. She was one of the first people to realise that the emotional intensity and art of the painter could also be applied to photography - taking her inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood of painters who were, at that time, just beginning to come to the fore and revolutionise the then highly conservative establishment of British art. Because of this, and because of her wide circle of friends and admirers, her photographs offer us a unique perspective into the aesthetic world of Victorian England.

Note: The tragic story of Beatrice Cenci was an immensely powerful one and inspired romantic artists and poets alike. She was the subject of a play by the poet Shelley and was also clearly able to provided a suitable vehicle for Julia Margaret's special dramatic and atmospheric genius.

'THE ARROW CHEST' - the ultimate neo-Victorian novel

(The photograph here is of the celebrated English actress Ellen Terry in 1854, who also became the wife of Julia Margaret's good friend, the artist George Frederick Watts)

Apart from her association with one of the leading developers of photography, John Herschel (1792-1871), her place in the history of the medium is assured by her development of the close up genre itself. Over a productive period of fourteen years at her home in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, she produced hundreds of powerful, sometimes sentimental, always remarkable images of people. Her list of sitters included:

Ellen Terry - celebrated actress
George Frederic Watts - famous artist
Charles Darwin - naturalist and writer
John Herschel - astronomer
Robert Browning - poet
Joachim - the great violinist
Alfred Lord Tennyson - Poet Laureate
William Michael Rossetti - the Pre-Raphaelite painter
Alice Liddell - the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice
Thomas Carlyle - writer
Longfellow - writer
Anthony Trollope - writer
Edward Burne-Jones - Pre-Raphaelite painter
William Holman Hunt - painter, founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement
John Everett Millais - painter, founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement
Julia Jackson (Duckworth) mother to the author Virginia Woolf

Julia Margaret lived in a remarkable part of the world at the time - on the Isle of Wight - just off the South coast of England. The poet Alfred Tennyson and the painter George Frederick Watts were her neighbours, and a list of artists and writers too numerous to mention visited the area where they all lived - a place made even more popular by the proximity of Queen Victoria in the Royal Palace of Osborne. It must have been an amazing society of like-minded people.

However, Julia Margaret's work was not always met with universal approval ...

"Mrs. Cameron exhibits her series of out of focus portraits of celebrities. We must give this lady credit for daring originality but at the expense of all other photographic qualities."
(from The Photographic Journal for 15 February 1865 )

"One portrait of the Poet Laureate presents him in the guise which would be sufficient to convict him if he were charged as a rogue and a vagabond before any bench of magistrates in the kingdom."
(from the Photographic News)

'THE ARROW CHEST' - the ultimate neo-Victorian novel

(the photograph here is of Julia Jackson - mother of author Virginia Woolf)

"My first lens was given to me by my cherished departed daughter with the words 'it may amuse you, Mother, to try to photograph during your solitude at Freshwater."

"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. I began with no knowledge of the art. I did not know where to place my dark box, how to focus my sitter, and my first picture I effaced to my consternation by rubbing my hand over the filmy side of the glass."

"It is a sacred blessing which has attended my photography; it gives a pleasure to millions and a deeper happiness to very many."

'My Aspirations are to ennoble Photography and to secure for it the character and uses of High Art by combining the real and Ideal and sacrificing nothing of the Truth by all possible devotion to Poetry and beauty.'

Dimbola Lodge located near Freshwater Bay on the south coast of England was the home of Julia Margaret Cameron from 1860 to 1875 and was where she undertook almost all of her most important work. Originally two adjacent cottages, in order to make the house look more imposing she added a central tower in the neo-gothic style popular at the time. The building fell into disrepair during the 20th century and was only saved from the bulldozers at the last minute by the tireless efforts of local volunteers. It is now the home of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, and is a beautiful and elegant museum. It houses a permanent exhibition of her work, along with a changing program of contemporary photography and art exhibitions - often attracting some of the most prestigious names from the contemporary photography scene. Complete with tea rooms and delightful coastal walks, it is well worth a visit.

Julia Margaret Cameron was wont to take any passer-by off the street, sometimes complete strangers, who appeared to fulfil the role of her current subject or allegory. The victim would then be arrayed in whatever garments were suitable and made to sit for her. The following is quoted from a letter from Emily Tennyson to her father and sister:

'My dearest Daddy and Nanny,
I must tell you about Mrs Cameron's "Time." She was talking on an interesting subject with Mr Pollock when suddenly she rushed out with extended arms. "Stop him! Stop him! There he is: Time." An old man was brought in with white hair. According to Hallam, he was undressed, had no shirt on, wanted scrubbing very much. Mrs Cameron wraps him up in best shawles, puts an egg cup in his hand, turns him into "Time," but talks to him so much about his beautiful face that he is supposed to have grown very conceited at last ...'
Taken from 'Busts and Titbits' by Island writer Elizabeth Hutchins.

The photograph here is from her collaboration with Tennyson on their ground-breaking illustrated edition of "Idylls of the King"

See Tennyson's poem 'The Lady of Shalott'

Further anecdote:
One of Julia Margaret's favourite models was Mary Ryan, a poor girl whom she had adopted from her homeless mother. Her photo was seen in an exhibition of Cameron's work, and one gentleman in particular was so besotted with her that he swore that he would find her marry her. And indeed he did! A wonderful story.

The photograph here depicts that great Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite heroine 'Ophelia'

See 'Opehlia - then and now'

Some of the titles of her photographs reveal the wide range of her interests - which clearly were focused very much on mythological themes, or else often celebrated brave and independent women from history. She also illustrated the themes associated with Arthurian legend - and especially those of her close friend the poet Tennyson. This proved to be something of an obsession. Of the approximately two hundred images she produced in her career, forty-two depicted 'The Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere.' Determined to see her work reproduced and circulated to as wide an audience as possible, she arranged in 1875 for Henry S. King to publish a volume entitled Illustrations to Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and Other Poems, produced directly from her negatives.

Some other titles and themes help us to understand the direction of her thinking ...

"Girl Praying"
"A Study of a Holy Family"
"Ophelia"
"Hypatia,"
"The Last Tournament"
"Gareth and Lynette"
"The Marriage of Geraint"
"Merlin and Vivien"
"The Holy Grail
"Lancelot and Elaine"
"Guinevere"
"The Coming of Arthur"
"The Passing of Arthur"

In keeping with the Pre-Raphaelite philosophy with which she was so intimately wound up, her 'message' tells of the redemptive and re-generative powers of the female energy in nature and in human faith.

See Tennyson's poem 'The Lady of Shalott'

The clothing of her models in the typical free-flowing and loosely fitting garments favoured by the Pre-Raphaelite communities also pointed the way towards the then upcoming political movements such as the Suffragettes and ultimately the Feminist movements of the sixties. In so many respects, Julia Margaret Cameron is a pioneer, and not at all confined to the medium of the photograph.

One of Julia Margaret's neighbours during her most productive years was the Poet Laureate Lord Tennyson. They worked together on an illustrated version of his work and were close friends for many years. Tennyson was the voice and inspiration for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. One of his greatest poems is the famous Lady of Shalott.

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