Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was among the most original British photographers of the nineteenth century and one of the most colorful personalities in the history of the medium. Born and raised in Calcutta, India, Julia Pattle married Charles Hay Cameron, a distinguished jurist and legal reformer, in 1838; they had a daughter and five sons.
Ambitious from the start, Cameron considered herself an artist who made photographs rather than just a photographer. Her images were radical for their use of soft focus, large scale, and close-up perspective. Her working methods were spontaneous and intuitive and her profound sensitivity to the poetic effects of light and dark intensified the sculptural force of her work. Cameron's innovative techniques and the powerful results influenced the vision of generations of photographers after her.
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