Julia Margaret Cameron Photography Analysis

Photography is something in the 20th Century which is taken for granted by many. With the use of mobile phones and handheld cameras, photographs can be taken anywhere at any time. This wasn’t always the case, In the 19th century photography was born and what started off as men and women wanting to take pictures of what was in front of them became much more. Photography became an art form, a means of experimentation. This gave birth to artists. Photographers where now able to express themselves by having something in a physical sense in front of them rather than just putting a pen to paper. Julia Margaret Cameron was born on 11 June 1815 in Calcutta, and was a famous photographer in 1842. She was the fourth of seven sisters and her father

Karsh endured much harassment and hardship in Turkey for being an Armenian. At the age of 16 in 1924 he decided to immigrate to Canada where he joined his uncle who was a photographer. He served as an apprentice doing odd jobs for a Boston painter and portrait photographer. After Karsh’s employer Ottawa retired Karsh leased the studio and was selected “official portrait photographer of the Canadian government in 1935”. This title gained recognition for Karsh ,opening many doors for him to be one of the most famous portrait photographers of his time. (Encyclopedia Britannica,

Hired by the Canadian government Karsh began by researching Churchill. He researched all of the prime minister’s habits, approaches and tendencies. Karsh only had two minutes to photograph Churchill as he was not informed about the photograph and was not amused at the time. Churchill lit up a cigar and looked at Karsh with a mischievous look on his face when Karsh asked him to remove the cigar from his mouth Churchill refused. Karsh began to walk towards him to apparently get a light level and then he calmly pulled the signature cigar from Churchill’s lips. He then walked back to the camera and clicked his camera remote then capturing the ‘determined’ face of Churchill which was in fact was an aggressive expression. After Karsh captured the picture Churchill seemed more relaxed and told him to take another photograph it was then he walked towards Karsh and shook his hand, he then said “You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed”. Capturing the image of the British Wartime leader was a huge achievement and was just the beginning of Yousufs’ success. The use of thematic lighting helped meticulous subjects faces and idealised their presence as that of someone important. The image of Sir Winston Churchill was the most famous portraits ever