From Life cover art

From Life

Julia Margaret Cameron and Victorian Photography

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About this listen

From Life tells the story of the greatest portrait photographer of the Victorian age, Julia Margaret Cameron. Born in Calcutta in 1815, she married and settled down to the life of a typical Victorian colonial matron; but, beneath this conventional exterior, she was increasingly interested in photography. After moving to England, Cameron acquired her first camera in 1863, ultimately emerging as the leading portrait photographer of the Victorian art world. Her great-niece Virginia Woolf wrote about her distinguished photographs of "Famous Men and Fair Women," including Tennyson, Carlyle, Herschel, Darwin, and Woolf's mother Julia Stephen. This is a fascinating and meticulously researched biography of a remarkable female artist who was decades ahead of her time.

©2003 Victoria Olsen (P)2019 Victoria Olsen Art & Literature Artists, Architects & Photographers
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I've always been ambivalent about JMC photos. After listening to this I am more so and also about her life and the Victorians in general. The book is very good in reflecting different views and aspects of JMC as a photographer but even at the end I can't get past the privilege. Did she have talent? Yes but ...
The comparison with Marianne North is apt. Go stand in the Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens and ask if this women could really paint flowers or if she was just privileged and wanted to play at it. Ditto jMC.
The book is good but maybe falls down on the author not taking a strong stand at some point - even in the epilogue. After all the research did she like this woman or not?

fascinating

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