Julia Margaret Cameron Appreciation

[cliveh]

 

[cliveh]

 

[awty]

Her work was beautiful and brilliant, hard to think of a better portrait photographer.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

She was way ahead of her time.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I could kick myself for not buying two exceptional platinum prints of hers for $2000 apiece. But that would have been a lot of money for a college student back then who could barely afford textbooks. I can hardly think of anyone who handled the medium more compellingly, if you view her prints in person. Good thing she had a rich husband; but even he struggled with her platinum budget. Their dinner guests included a lot of famous people, who dreaded getting roped into long camera sessions. But it was her own domestic staff of maids who comprise some of the finest compositions. Yeah - the genre of costuming and posing has been criticized for being too predictably of the "pre-Raphaelite" rage of the Victorian era; but despite that, she somehow transcended that and turned things into something magical.

 

[Rod Klukas]

She was great and some great models nearby. Mrs Herbert Duckworth is the lady in CliveH image.

She also presaged Henry Peach Robinson and others with her tableaux settings for created images using models and sets.

Thanks for sharing

Rod

 

[DREW WILEY]

Worthy of lot more than a duck, I'd say. Timeless image!

 

[Rod Klukas]

I always appreciated J M C's work. She was far more creative in her images, than most standard Portrait photographers.

By the way, in the 19th century there were more women photographers than men. But as men wrote most of the History, few are mentioned...

Rod

 

[Steve Smith]

I’m lucky enough to live on the Isle of Wight, just a few miles away from JMC’s former home, Dimbola Lodge. It is now a photographic gallery and museum with a tea room. A very nice place to visit.

 

[Rod Klukas]

Super!

My main professor at Arizona State on my MFA committee was Bill Jay from the UK. His good friend was David Hurn, from Wales. He would come each year to visit Bill here. He would order usually 400 rolls of TriX and about 125 rolls of Kodachrome film to start off. The usually another 200 rolls of TriX and maybe 50 of Kodachrome after about 3 weeks. He would actually shoot it all up in a month.
But between them they introduced me to many English photographers, Especially 19th century camera people.

So I was lucky to know them.

He also introduced me to Helmut Gernsheim, who would open a Photographic Art school in Lausanne, Switzerland. One of the first Photo Art Schools in Europe.

Be well,

Rod

 

[cliveh]

I’m lucky enough to live on the Isle of Wight, just a few miles away from JMC’s former home, Dimbola Lodge. It is now a photographic gallery and museum with a tea room. A very nice place to visit.

Many years ago I visited her home and her next door neighbour had one of her glass plates that they showed me. Alfred Tennyson lived almost over the road and I read a great story about how Charles Lutwidge Dodgson visited him and they went upstairs to smoke drugs.

 

[Rod Klukas]

Indeed, Where did those ideas of Alice come from?

Rod

 

[pentaxuser]

He would order usually 400 rolls of TriX and about 125 rolls of Kodachrome film to start off. The usually another 200 rolls of TriX and maybe 50 of Kodachrome after about 3 weeks. He would actually shoot it all up in a month.
But between them they introduced me to many English photographers, Especially 19th century camera people.



Rod

So counting up your numbers he'd shoot 800 rolls in a month. That 25 rolls a day or about a roll every half hour assuming he'd shoot for about 12 hours per day?

Amazing

pentaxuser

 

[DREW WILEY]

That's interesting, Cliveh. Her portrait of Tennyson is certainly fascinating. I always thought he was on the verge of falling asleep due to her infamously long sitter ordeals; but maybe there's a different explanation (maybe he was simply "spaced out" - but I doubt it; she would have been the type to snap her fingers). In any event, what most of us would make a train wreck of, Julia turned into a masterpiece.

 

[Alan Johnson]

Twice on a trip to the Isle of Wight I have been to Dimbola which had an extensive exhibition of her work. My favorite JMC is the portrait of Sir John Herschel, promoter of thiosulfate fixer.

 

[Arthurwg]

As I remember the history, JMC received a lot of flack from the photographic community of the day for her "out of focus" work and other perceived flaws, largely, IMHO, because she was a woman.

 

[DREW WILEY]

You guy are sure tempting me to dust off my ole Cameron book and take it to the backyard reading chair. I remember that Herschel portrait too - slightly jarred and not just out of focus - but for her, it worked.

She was said to simply focus and stop down to the point it was comfortable to her, with the right feel - all intuitive, and no special lenses or flawed ones per that era at least. I'd sure like to see a major exhibition of her work. I'd love to visit the Isle of Wight too, but it's not realistically in my cards.

I wonder if the entire present digital/inkjet interval will produce a single photographer of equal quality. Some things just can't be faked - loosely mimicked perhaps, but not with the same weight. What she so subtly captures in eyes and lips alone reminds me of DaVinci.

 

[BrianShaw]

You guy are sure tempting me to dust off my ole Cameron book and take it to the backyard reading chair. I remember that Herschel portrait too - slightly jarred and not just out of focus - but for her, it worked.

She was said to simply focus and stop down to the point it was comfortable to her, with the right feel - all intuitive, and no special lenses or flawed ones per that era at least. I'd sure like to see a major exhibition of her work. I'd love to visit the Isle of Wight too, but it's not realistically in my cards.

I wonder if the entire present digital/inkjet interval will produce a single photographer of equal quality. Some things just can't be faked - loosely mimicked perhaps, but not with the same weight. What she so subtly captures in eyes and lips alone reminds me of DaVinci.

I've seen two exhibitions. The pictures in some books are really good but the actual photographs are awe-inspiring.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I've only seen about six of her actual platinum prints; but they were unforgettable.

 

[nikos79]

I find her amazing. And way ahead of her time. She staged the whole renaissance world in her photos. She built her own photographic world. A true master.

 

[nikos79]

Super!

My main professor at Arizona State on my MFA committee was Bill Jay from the UK. His good friend was David Hurn, from Wales. He would come each year to visit Bill here. He would order usually 400 rolls of TriX and about 125 rolls of Kodachrome film to start off. The usually another 200 rolls of TriX and maybe 50 of Kodachrome after about 3 weeks. He would actually shoot it all up in a month.
But between them they introduced me to many English photographers, Especially 19th century camera people.

So I was lucky to know them.

He also introduced me to Helmut Gernsheim, who would open a Photographic Art school in Lausanne, Switzerland. One of the first Photo Art Schools in Europe.

Be well,

Rod

This is fascinating I live in Lausanne have to research him

 

[DREW WILEY]

I dug up my Aperture monograph on her and started re-reading it again. It seems her success rate of "classic images" was around 1% - about 60 from the estimated 6,000 negatives she shot during her 12 years of photography. Quite a lot of hand-coating effort when buckets of well water were involved! - she had nothing resembling modern darkroom plumbing. There is little information on her personal methods of printing in this particular biography.

It seems that once her work caught on, it was "published" as mounted and boxed or "album" sets by commercial darkroom firms, much like what we call limited editions today. One of her own prints would be on hand as a reference; but she had no ability to produce those in quantity herself. She'd sign each print, or sometimes have her household maids sign them for her - the same girls who also were her models. Many of these were silver prints, which, due to fading, had to be copied and reissued later by the same "publisher". After her death, a number of carbon prints were made from her later negs. Overall, there are probably a variety of prints either made personally or contract authorized by her - Pt/Pd, silver printing-out paper, and commercially printed carbon.

 

[AtlantaArtist]

There was a beautiful show of her work at the Morgan Library and Museum in NYC that just closed. More than 50 original prints, mostly albumen. Biggest show by far I have ever seen of her work. Well curated.

 

[Peter Schrager]

The getty just published a nice book about her

 

[AtlantaArtist]

I see something from 2003, is that the book you mean? I just downloaded if for free!