Julia Margaret Cameron
British, 1815-1879

Julia Jackson, 1867

Albumen silver print from wet collodion negative
27.6 x 22.0 cm (17 3/4 x 13 7/8 in.)
Harriott A. Fox Endowment, 1968.227

One of the most famous photographers of the Victorian era, Julia Margaret Cameron helped elevate photography to an art form. She eschewed the sharp focus and even lighting found in commercial portraiture and instead made personal, spirited images that aimed for a poetic beauty. In this photograph of her beloved niece, Julia Jackson, Cameron controls the focal range to show only limited planes of Jackson's face clearly, leaving a full half shrouded in shadow. Although she posed most of her female sitters as religious or allegorical figures, with Jackson she allows the great force of her personality to shine through.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

AIC, "Julia Margaret Cameron's Women," September 19, 1998 - January 10, 1999; traveled to New York, The Museum of Modern Art, January 27 - May 4, 1999; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, August 27 - November 30, 1999, (Sylvia Wolf).

AIC, "Hot Streaks," February 21 - May 2, 2004, (David Travis) (Galleries 2-4).

Publication History

Wolf, Sylvia. 1998. "Julia Margaret Cameron's Women." Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press. cover, fig. 36, pl. 57.