18
B+WEXHIBITION OF THE MONTH
Showing one of the most important and innovative photographers
of the 19th century in a new light, Julia Margaret Cameron
gives insight into the portraitist’s development as an artist and her
relationship with the V&A museum. Anna Bonita Evans reports.
NEWS
The Passing of King Arthur, 1874A
longside the likes of
William Henry Fox
Talbot, Henri
Cartier-Bresson and
Ansel Adams (not to mention
Annie Leibovitz, Edward Weston
and Robert Capa), Julia Margaret
Cameron is an individual whose
name and work is known
throughout the photography
world. With an impressive
archive and a highly innovative
style (some pictures still seem
intensely modern despite being
taken and printed 150 years ago),
Cameron’s images have toured in
major international exhibitions,
been written and talked about
countless times and reproduced
to the extent that almost anyone
interested in photography willrecognise her pictures.
So how do you produce an
exhibition that reveals
something new about a
photographer who’s received so
much exposure and praise?
Marta Weiss, the curator of
photographs at the V&A, has
done just that – and to powerful
effect too. A lot of recognition
for Cameron’s pictures came
posthumously, so Weiss takes us
back to a time when Cameron’s
work was known in the artistic
and high society circles she
mixed in, but not much beyond.
We are presented with a story
of one woman’s relentless
dedication to her chosen medium,
how she worked for it to be
recognised as an art form and heraffiliation with the South
Kensington Museum (now the
V&A). The story is told from the
viewpoint of her professional
relationship with the museum’s
founding director, Sir Henry Cole,
who in 1865 presented Cameron
with her first exhibition – the
only one during her lifetime.T
he exhibition is structured
around four letters
Cameron wrote to Cole
and reveals Cameron’s
personal development as an artist:
we’re given insight into her views,
aspirations and working methods.
Visitors can also learn about the
woman’s concerns as a portraitist
and desire to earn an income
from photography (as well as herstruggles with the technical
aspects of the medium) from the
diary extracts set alongside the
letters and 100 pictures.
Cole’s 1865 diary, in which he
records going to pose for his
portrait with the photographer,
is displayed alongside the only
surviving portrait Cameron took
of Cole. Another rare piece is the
recently discovered, never
exhibited in public before, first
photograph showing Cameron’s
studio. Taken in around 1863 by
photographer Oscar Gustaf
Rejlander, the picture depicts
two women drawing water from
a well in front of a glasshouse –
which Cameron later turned into
one of her studios. The other was
at the V&A, where in 1868 Cole
granted her the use of two
rooms, making her the museum’s
first artist-in-residence.
The prints seen here have been
chosen from the museum’s
collection of more than 250 of
Cameron’s images, including 88
the V&A acquired or received as
a gift directly from her, and other
prints that were collected later
from various sources.
Part of the nationwide
celebration of the photographer’s
bicentenary anniversary, there is
also the Science Museum’s show
Julia Margaret Cameron:
Influence and Intimacy at the
Media Space in London and a
series of events and displays at
Dimbola Museum and Galleries
on the Isle of Wight – Cameron’s
former home.
The book Julia Margaret
Cameron: Photographs to
Electrify you with Delight and
Startle the World by Marta Weiss
also accompanies the show.
It’s published by Mack in
partnership with V&A
Publishing and costs £25.
The book is available to buy now.
Go to mackbooks.co.uk for
more details about the title.Circe, 1865Charles Darwin, 1868, printed 187518-19_EOTM_185/ABE/MB/ER.indd 1818-19_EOTM_185/ABE/MB/ER.indd 18 02/12/2015 10:2802/12/2015 10:28