Renowned photographer Julia Margaret Cameron is famous for her evocative portraits of eminent Victorians, including John Herschel, Alfred Tennyson, Henry Taylor, George Frederic Watts, Ellen Terry and Julia Stephen. This study of her work reveals how deeply she was convinced of the poetic possibilities of her medium, particularly its capacity for suggestive rather than literal meaning. She did not get it right on all counts, and her practice violated the aesthetic orthodoxy of the day. But the blurring of the 'real' subject before her lens created unparalleled possibilities for a broader pursuit of the sublime and beautiful. Drawing on over 100 items from the photographic collections at the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford, as well as comparative works of art, this book celebrates a collection that illustrates the aesthetic development of the photographer from her earliest pictures to her most poetic photographs. It also includes her own poetry and the key images she created for her extraordinary Illustrations to Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and Other Poems, demonstrating her fascination with the artistic connection between poetry and photography.

About the Author
Nichole J. Fazio received her doctorate in the History of Art from the University of Oxford, where she specialised in 19th-century British photography. She is currently the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Research and Scholars Programs at the University of Chicago. She is also the founding executive director of its College Center for Research and Fellowships and lecturer in the Humanities Collegiate Division.


Book Information
ISBN 9781851245840
Author Nichole J. Fazio
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Bodleian Library
Publisher Bodleian Library