A stunning new exhibition of the work of the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron is currently showing at the National Portrait Gallery until May 26.
Julia Margaret Cameron: 19th Century Photographer of Genius showcases the work of one of the true giants of photographic portraiture.
Cameron began her extraordinary career in 1863 after being given a camera by her daughter in law at the age of 48. She embraced photography with a passion bordering on obsession. In a little more than a decade she produced hundreds of searching portraits of some of the most eminent figures of the Victorian age.
Her remarkable photographs are today recognised as being decades ahead of their time, so it's surprising that this is the first major exhibition that brings together the finest of Cameron's prints.
The NPG has managed to collect an impressive range of works from museums and private collections throughout Europe and the United States representing the complete range of Cameron's oeuvre.
Visitors to the Gallery are treated to the full background and context of Cameron's work, which is arranged simply and thematically.
There are the images strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood of Millais, Rossetti and Holman Hunt and there are the pre-requisite bearded Victorians dressed as Arthurian heroes in chain mail. But this exhibition finally allows us to view the full breadth, beauty and impact of her work.
Romantic portraits of literary figures such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Charles Darwin and Sir Henry Taylor, give way to beautiful portraits of women friends, servants and family - replete with the solemn eyes and long flowing locks.
Cameron's religious tableaux are also well represented and beautifully displayed.
There is even a rare outing for the photographer's portraits of the people of Ceylon where she lived for the final four years of her life.
This is the most definitive Cameron exhibition to date and it succeeds in matching the stature of a photographer with a singular vision and an ever growing reputation.
