Afterimage (29 page)

When Cameron began taking photographs, photography wasn’t considered a true art form, and so she tried to imitate the painters of the time and portray allegorical and classical scenes so that she would be taken seriously as an artist. The allegorical tableaux, which seem remarkably old-fashioned now, were the order of the day in late Victorian England. But while Cameron set up her models to portray “Meekness” or “Love” or “The Angel at the Sepulchre,” her soft-focus technique worked against her. It was thought of, not in terms of artistic enhancement, but merely as her inability to focus her lens. Another thing that did not endear her immediately to her time was that she photographed her women models with their hair loose and down. This was considered scandalous and called her moral character into question.

Cameron was not a careful film developer. Her negatives were often scratched, and there were bits of dust stuck to the photographs.

“Another thing that did not endear her immediately to her time was that she photographed her women models with their hair loose and down.”

Cameron favoured using her servants as models primarily because she didn’t have to give them a modelling fee. For this reason too, she photographed friends and neighbours: Alice Liddell, who when a child was the inspiration for Alice of
Alice in Wonderland
and was photographed by Lewis Carroll, was a neighbour of Cameron’s on the Isle of Wight; Tennyson was also a neighbour; and G.F. Watts was a friend. The character of the painter Robert Hill in my novel is based on G.F.Watts.

One of Cameron’s favourite models was her niece, Julia Jackson, who married Leslie Stephen and was the mother of Virginia Woolf. In fact, the photograph Cameron considered to be her best is one of Jackson. She was twenty-one and the photograph was taken in the month before she married her first husband, Herbert Duckworth.

Three years later she was a widow, and her aunt photographed her again—her face thinner, her expression tired and beautiful, the perfect Victorian tragic heroine—except that, unlike the models Cameron used to portray tragic historic poses, Jackson actually was the tragic heroine of her own life.

Virginia Woolf, in her capacity as publisher at The Hogarth Press, the publishing house she ran with her husband, Leonard Woolf, published a collection of photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron tided
Famous Men and Fair Women.
In this book are several portraits of Woolf’s mother. Virginia Woolf wrote a rather light-hearted introduction to the collection in which she mocks her great-aunt’s artistic enthusiasm but praises her photographs. She quotes Cameron talking about her work: “I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me, and at length the longing was satisfied.”

Woolf also wrote a play about her great-aunt called
Freshwater,
which was the name of the village on the Isle of Wight where the Camerons lived. This play was written for private production, performed in London in 1935 only for and by Woolf’s friends and relations in the studio of her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell. In the play, as in the introduction to the collection of photographs, she makes fun of Julia Margaret Cameron’s rabid pursuit of artistic excellence. Mrs. Cameron herself is a character in the play and is given long speeches where she praises the quality of a policeman’s calves and brags that she has costumed her cook as a Queen, her boot-boy as Cupid. Still, Woolf admired Cameron’s dedication and talent, and was pleased to have descended from that lineage of artistic spirit.

Woolf admired Cameron’s dedication and talent, and was pleased to have descended from that lineage of artistic spirit.

“I used some of Woolf’s light-hearted take on her great-aunt to create my Cameron-like character of Isabelle.”

I used Virginia Woolf’s play as part of my research for
Afterimage.
There was information in the play that seemed to have been passed down as family story. It was interesting to me that Julia Margaret Cameron’s maid Mary Hillier had been nicknamed “Mary Madonna” because of the number of times she was required to pose in this role. And from the play I also learned that Cameron would sometimes lock children in a cupboard to get that look of despair and sorrow that she wanted to portray in certain photographs. I used some of Woolf’s light-hearted take on her great-aunt to create my Cameron-like character of Isabelle.

I have great respect for the fact that Julia Margaret Cameron took up photography at the age of forty-eight. Coming to her vocation so late in life meant that she pursued it with everything she had, that she held nothing in reserve. I gave some of this to Isabelle too—the rush and the rushing as she tried to make the world bend to her vision, as she tried to chase down what was all too swiftly in flight from her.

www.rleggat.com/photohistory
Photographer Robert Leggat’s site features ‘? History of Photography,” from its beginnings to the 1920s, as well as links to pages about significant people in the history of photography.

www
. vam
.ac. uk/collections/photography/ features/photo_focus/cameron/highlights/ index.html

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London boasts the world’s largest collection of Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographs, including the images shown here. Click “Biography” and other sidebar links for more about the artist.

www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/

artMakerDetails?maker=2026

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles also houses an impressive collection of Cameron’s photographs, which can be viewed here.

www. bbc. co. uk/history/british/victorians/ famine_01.shtml

Read about the Great Hunger in Jim Donnelly’s article “The Irish Famine” on this BBC History page.

www. bl. uk/learning/artimages/maphist/ mappinghistory. html
Visit the British Library page “Learning Mapping History” to discover more about cartography through the ages.

To receive updates on author events and new books by Helen Humphreys, sign up at www.authortracker.ca
www. bbc.co. uk/history/british/empire_seapower/launch_ani_mapmaking.shtml
Explore the fascinating history of map-making through this animated, interactive site.

www.hhumphreys.com

See Helen Humphreys’ official website for the author’s news and reviews.

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