1505
it is important that institutions and collectors maintain
the referential integrity of these volumes. Such albums
should be considered as a single item rather than a series
of unrelated images.
One woman who departed from the typical themes of
amateur image making was Lady Clementina Hawarden
(1822–1865). From 1857 until her untimely death, she
created over eight hundred photographs mainly of her
adolescent daughters caught in private moments of re-
fl ection or in fancy dress. Hawarden’s atmospheric and
sensual images were carefully constructed through the
use of fabric and props and reveal an inner private world
rather than a mere record of family life. Hawarden’s
original treatment of the domestic realm is in contrast
to previous amateur practice. Although they utilised
the same wet-plate process and albumen printing as
Hawarden most amateurs chose more formal and stiff
poses. The themes of the Pre-Raphaelite art movement
are refl ected in her photographs and she demonstrated
a sensibility that is not visible in much of the amateur
practice of this era.
In the mid-1860s another Englishwoman was to com-
mence the production of distinctive photographs within
her home. Julia Margaret Cameron’s (1815–1879) ro-
manticised portraits were infl uenced by the Pre-Rapha-
elite painters. She used family, friends, and servants to
re-create biblical scenes and Arthurian legends. She also
created idealised portraits of her many famous friends
and acquaintances.. Like Hawarden she used the wet
plate process and made albumen prints. She experimated
with close-up shots and was not overly concerned about
the precision of her images preferring to capture atmo-
sphere and expression using a soft focus. Critics were
divided as to the merits of her work mainly due to its
lack of sharpness. Both Cameron and Hawarden entered
their work into exhibitions held by the Photographic
Society of London. Cameron also made money from her
photography consequently blurring the lines between
amateur and professional practice. Her pioneering ar-
tistic vision widened the notion of what constituted a
good photograph. Another woman who interacted with
the photographic medium in a unique and creative way
was Virginia, Countesse de Castiglione (1837–1899).
She commissioned over four hundred portraits of herself
from the Mayer & Pierson studio in Paris. She chose
elaborate costumes and backgrounds to create vibrant
tableaux. These images, which she then hand-coloured,
re-created scenes from her own life or from novels.
Although she did not take the photographs her input
represents an example of the use of photography as a
tool for self-expression.
Lady Eastlake’s exploration of the uses of photogra-
phy included reference to its application within scientifi c
research. Anna Atkins (1799–1871) was one of the earli-
est female botanists to use photography to illustrate their
work. She worked with the Cyanotype contact printing
process which was invented by Sir John Herschel. The
brilliant blue cyanotype prints, which result from the ac-
tion of light on paper sensitized by iron salts, were used
by Atkins to accurately depict her collection of botanical
specimens. She painstakingly illustrated her work Pho-
tographs of British Algae; Cyanotype Impressions over
a ten year period from 1843. This work is considered to
be the fi rst photographically illustrated book and consti-
tutes a formidable piece of research and contribution to
scientifi c knowledge. Atkins’s work demonstrated that
women were capable of undertaking serious research
within the natural sciences. It also refl ects the Victorian
preoccupation with the collection and classifi cation of
natural phenomena. Alice Le Plongeon (1851–1916) and
her husband Augustus took photographs of archaeologi-
cal fi nds from their excavations in the jungles of Mexico
and these images which date from between 1873–1885
are amongst the earliest uses of photography in the fi eld
of archaeology. Both Atkins and Le Plongeon provide
evidence of women’s participation in a wide range of
photographic practices.
The female members of several royal families
promoted photography either through their patronage
of certain photographic formats or by taking pictures
themselves and compiling albums. In England, Queen
Victoria precipitated the craze for stereoscopic photog-
raphy by admiring a set at the Great Exhibition in 1851.
By permitting the sale of royal portraits she started the
trend in collecting cartes-de-visites of famous people.
In Austria in the 1860s Empress Elizabeth collected and
commissioned hundreds of portraits. Queen Victoria’s
daughter, Princess Victoria who married Crown Prince
Friedrich in 1858, was a committed amateur photogra-
pher. Alexandra, Princess of Wales, acquired a Kodak
roll-fi lm camera in 1889 and created many images which
she even exhibited. Several members of the Russian
royal family also took photographs.
Women were also involved in the production of com-
mercial portraits from its inception. A small number of
women ran their own daguerreotype studios in England
in the early 1840s. There is evidence of work undertaken
by Marie Chambefort, an itinerant daguerreotypist, who
was active in France around 1850. Some of these women
may have been previously engaged in the production of
miniatures and were merely combating the threat to their
living posed by photography. Others had the role thrust
upon them through the tragic event of widowhood or
the death of their fathers. In the United States, where
the daguerreotype attained the peak of its popularity,
women were also establishing and managing studios
during this formative period.
The number of portrait studios increased between the
1850s and the 1870s as tintypes and cartes-de-visites cut
the cost of photography. During this boom, there was