About

Renowned as the “greatest pictorialist of her day,” Julia Margaret Cameron began taking photographs at the age of 48 and quickly became one of the most original British photographers of the 19th century. Though her career spanned just over a decade, her work is remarkable for its breadth and ambition, produced at a time when photography was still a relatively new medium characterized by cumbersome cameras, fragile glass plates, and lengthy development processes.

Cameron sought to capture beauty above all else. Most of her images are either close-cropped portraits, unconventional in their intimacy, or tableaux vivants inspired by Biblical or literary sources. Her sitters included many prominent figures of the Victorian era, such as Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Edward Burne-Jones.

Because Cameron registered all of her photographs with the copyright office during her lifetime, they survive as some of the most complete visual records of the period. Though her work was not widely appreciated by her contemporaries, she is now recognized as having produced one of the most significant bodies of work in the history of photography. In 1975, Imogen Cunningham remarked, “I’d like to see portrait photography go right back to Julia Margaret Cameron. I don’t think there’s anyone better.”