In Focus

Known as the "greatest pictorialist of her day", Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) came to photography late in life, bringing years of literary and artistic experience to what was still a relatively new medium. She believed the camera was a tool of expression and revolved to reconcile traditional art content with modern forms of expression. The first volume in the "In Focus" series to examine the work of a nineteenth-century photographer, this beautiful volume examines Cameron's passion for the "divine art" and her "deeply seated love of the beautiful" that are clearly revealed by her compelling pictures. The J. Paul Getty Museum's collection of Cameron photographs consists of 298 prints. Approximately fifty of them are presented here. The plates are accompanied by commentaries written by Julian Cox, assistant curator of photographs. Along with Judy Dater, David Featherstone, Joanne Lukitsch, Weston Naef, Pamela Roberts, and Robert Woof, he participated in a colloquium on Cameron, an edited transcript of which is included here along with a chronology of Cameron's life.