Julia Margaret Cameron: Focusing on Beauty

"lago" 1867 Perhaps one of her most iconic shots.

I thought I would spend the next few weeks considering how different photographers approached photography.  I am focusing on the past tense because living photographers are still adapting their art (or should be) so it would be difficult to pull this sort of post mortem analysis from a living photographer. My goal, as with everything on this site, is to see what more I can learn about photography.

The first photographer I would like to discuss is Julia Margaret Cameron who is a fascinating photographer of the Victorian period. Just as photography was growing, Julia received a camera as a gift from her family and went to work changing how the world sees. But what of her approach makes her so unique? 

Let me lead with that. Her focusing technique. Aside from all the amazing art she created, the one aspect that keeps pulling me back in is her use of focus. While most photographers (including myself) focus on an image until the object is as clear as possible, Margaret would focus "until the image is beautiful". Wow...just....wow.

And there, twenty or so lines into this post you have what took me days of consideration to understand. What draws me to her art is the absolute adherence to the beauty of an image and a willingness to break any "rules" to get there. And the result....well she achieves it.

I learned of Julia Margaret Cameron when I first began digging into the masters of this art that so intrigues me. Her work did not speak to me immediately as I was naturally drawn to "straight" photography with sharp, angular shapes and strong contrast. Her work was too subtle for me to understand at that point. I bought a book to come back to later and left her and her work alone. I was not yet ready for it.

I recently went on a trip to San Diego where I was fortunate to see a exhibit of her work. This time, with a bit more photography maturity behind me, I looked at her work from a very different perspective and began to "fall into" her photography.  I say that because it is how I felt...I felt as if I was falling into her photographs. I went and stood before each of her works that was on exhibit (no Iago was not one of them) and allowed myself to fall into it. I started with the details, then the facial expression and then I would allow myself to let go and...fall.  

Consider "Annie" shot in 1864 the daughter of a neighbor. This is what Julia considered her first success. But take a second and really consider the image like I did back in San Diego. Look at her eyes, details in her hair and on the button of her coat. Consider the background and its contrasting elements and finally the use of light. Now pull back, and just look at it. While not her best work, the beauty is there...it is not sharp, heck the focus is all over the place but wow. Annie's expression and the lack of sharp focus allows us to bring to mind images of our own children...it is like we know this girl, this image even if we are seeing it for the first time.

"The Annunciation" is a better example of what Julia was after. The religious theme which reflected her Christian devotion is there but the lessons she learned from her first success of "Annie" is repeated. The only thing in focus are the lilies which the angel Gabriel is presenting to Mary. The dark, contrasting background, the use of light and then pulling back it comes together like a fond memory. Here Mary is looking at Gabriel while he is looking at the lilies. This is one of two shots of this sitting that I have seen and both tell a similar story but when combined we get a better feel for what Julia was after.

Side by side we can see the differences. Note the movement of Mary in the image on the right. Perhaps this is why Julis printed the one on the left. She was already controversial for her use of out of focus shots and maybe she felt the movement was a bit much. But the distortion of Mary is minimal and it captures a look beyond the lilies...the thousand yard stare and some have called it. But with either image you have the subtle beauty that for years I was ill prepared to recognize.

The very first image in this post, is on of "Iago" was a paid model (some debate as to which model exists but let's move beyond that) and the image is a classic portrait of Julia's. Contrasting background, soft focus, filling the frame and amazing use of light. He does not look at the camera, he is looking down. The model is playing an evil character, a great manipulator in Shakespeare's Othello.  Perhaps he is ashamed, perhaps he is just pausing before his next manipulation or perhaps he has been caught and the image is the instant before the fall...this was not a candid shot...this was a carefully prepared, choreographed shot and it comes across amazingly well. 

But what of these elements makes it a memory of something I have never seen? That careful departure from the technical perfectionism and embracing or allowing the imperfections to aide the beauty of the image and her innate ability to capture emotion. But that soft focus, really pulls you in and then you realize that this is how you remember your dreams. They are not sharp in focus, they are soft, wiggly and imperfect but the convey our fears, anxieties and loves. Julia Margaret Cameron managed to capture images as we remember our dreams.