What Challenges Did Julia Cameron Face

Elizabeth Spain

19th century

Julia Margaret Cameron

Slide 1: Intro:

Julia Cameron (she) was a British photographer, who was born in India in 1815. Cameron was an upper middle class Victorian women who studied in France, returning to India in 1834. Four years later, in 1838, she married Charles Cameron. In 1848, 10 year later, after Charles retired, he and Julia returned to England where they raised their children. Cameron was a self-taught amateur with only had a few lessons from other photographers as experience. She did have one mentor however, for a short time, the painter G. F. Watts. Cameron created a style that was all her own. She learned by trial and error.

Her interest in photography did not emerge until she was 48, after receiving

A photography portrait of a neighbor’s daughter named Annie in 1864. From this first success she would move on to photograph family and friends.

• Also in 1864 she began to register her work at the British Copyright Office. In order to be able to become a member of the photographic society of London and to also sale and exhibit photographs through the London print dealers. Cameron would commonly exhibit works in London, Berlin, Paris, and the Netherlands. Most of her work was made between 1864 and 1875.

Slide 3: Paul &

Famously, know for her soft focused romanticized Victorian portrait photographs. These images would receive the most praised, manly because of the close crop framing and the strength of the composition. She would fill the frame close with the subject’s head to create immediacy for the finished product. Which is a bit different to other portraits of the time period. Photographic portraits in the 1860s were small in scale. Cameron however, would make the portraits in a larger scale.

• For Cameron this was more of a hobby to her then anything, she did not take photos to earn money to live off of. She was able to indulge in her work. She could afford large prints and to hand them out to sitters, family, and friends. As well as many exhibits. which in turn would transform her work. However, this was one reason her work was considered to be experimental and unconventional. Along with making bigger prints.

• However, the passion she felt for her work aided her in not being afraid to experiment. She would create flaws in her pictures. Keeping the technical imperfections others would reject. Such as, streaks, swirls, and fingerprints. As well as, use multiple negatives for a single picture sometimes to embraced the flawed medium even