Julia Margaret Cameron (June 11, 1815 - January 26, 1879) was a British photographer and one of the first female photographers. She became known for her portraits of local celebrities of her time and her very heroic themes throughout all of her work. Although her photographer career was a short eleven years, starting at age 48 when gifted her first camera, she is one of the most important women in the world of photography. Her work was not positively perceived during her time as she liked to mix art and science to create a different type of style that was not yet popular. She would manipulate the wet collodion process which made her prints turn out differently than “normal” prints and made them look as if they were mistakenly made that way.
Later down the line, Cameron’s niece, Julia Stephen the mother of Virginia Woolf), wrote the biography of Cameron that appeared in the first edition of Dictionary National Biography, 1886. Virginia Woolf then went on to collaborate with Roger Fry to edit a collection of Cameron’s work that was later published in 1926.
It wasn’t until 1948, though, that Julia Margaret Cameron’s work was really recognized. In 2003, the Getty Museum published an entire catalogue on Camerons work where she received recognition for being considered “among the finest in the early history of photography”. In 2013, the Metropolitan Museum of Art curated an entire exhibition of Camerons work which then brought a lot of attention to her work.
Julia Margaret Cameron is definitely an inspiration to me because she is truly one of the very first female photographers we know of, and that alone is beautiful in itself. On top of that, her portraits are incredible and are right up my ally.
This photo titled, "Annie, My First Success" is said to be Julia Margaret Cameron's first print she created with which she felt she liked and though was successful.
My personal favorite photo of Julia Margaret Cameron's is
this portrait of Ellen Terry. Something about it is so incredible and exquisitely elegant while also feeling so naturally beautiful.
