Julia Margaret Cameron

<p>At the age of 48, when she moved to the Isle of Wight, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was given a camera by her daughter: "It might amuse you, Mother, to try to photograph during your solitude at Freshwater." The gift was to begin Cameron¿s short but prolific career as one of photography¿s first great artists. <br><em>"From the first moment I handled my lens with a tender ardour, and it has become to me as a living thing, with voice and memory and creative vigour."</em><br>The modern interest in Cameron¿s photography began with the pioneering 1926 book by her great-niece Virginia Woolf and art critic Roger Fry. Their essays and the original plates are reprinted here, together with Cameron¿s own account of her life in photography, <em>Annals of My Glass House</em>, her only surviving poem, <em>On a Portrait</em>, and an introduction by Tristram Powell. <br>Thirty-nine plates and other illustrations have been added, including many of Cameron¿s most famous images.</p>