Describe name and the process involved in making this image.
Julia Cameron used the most popular process at the time - producing albumen prints from wet collodion glass negatives. Most of the process took place in the darkroom. Photosensitive chemicals and sunlight were involved to make the images appear as we know them. This very portrait is made to look like a cameo.
Who was the subject and which famous people did this subject give birth to.
On this very photograph, we see Mrs. Cameron’s niece and Goddaughter – Julia Jackson. This very year she got happily married to Herbert Duckworth. Several years later after his death she remarried to Sir Leslie Stephen. Artist Vanessa Bell and the writer Virginia Woolf are their children.
What was the era called in which this image was made.
British historians of photography attribute Cameron to representatives of “Victorian era”. These words to certain extend determine the social nature of her work. It also meant that there were many heroic looking men, tender women and many adorable children that looked dreamy, exalted, enlightened, melancholic and wise, undetached from the bustle of everyday routine.
How is this image representative of its era
At the time, photography was an emerging art. Not many people had cameras and even fewer could use them. Devices were bulky and heavy. In order to make one photo the model had to wait for several minutes or sometimes more. Therefore, it was more like a performance and so the portraits of that time have some sort of theatrical posing. Still Julia Cameron managed to make hers look very natural.
Based on the person’s pose, what would you say the artist wanted to convey about the person in the image.
At what age did this artist begin making images.
For the most part of her life, Julia Cameron had nothing to do with photography. It was not until she was 48 that her daughter gave her camera as a present that intended to only distract her from everyday routine. Very soon, it became clear to all that this became a little more than a hobby for Mrs. Cameron.
Ancient ruins in the Canyon de Chelly by Timothy O’Sullivan.
Describe the style
Ultimately, Timothy O’Sullivan has invented his own style of photography, showing alternative ways of visual perspective. Ansel Adams and many experts agree that his techniques show early traces of Surrealism. Objects, portrayed in O’Sullivan’s photographs do not look “natural” in the usual sense of the word. Rather they seem like artifacts, materialized hallucinations or superhuman fantasies, causing the line between different categories of things to blur. O’Sullivan was trying to express the sense of the end of history, dissolving the boundaries between objective and subjective.
Historical significance.
O'Sullivan was one of the first to document prehistoric pueblo ruins and villages of the southwest. His vision of the country was different from generally romanticized depiction of other documentarists. Therefore, works of O’Sullivan have great historical importance. They give us another perspective of the events. Maybe more, maybe less realistic, but together with them the image becomes whole. Timothy O’Sullivan’s Canyon de Chelly works are highly appraised by critics and historians. Overall, they indicate a very high level of photography and creativity.
References
Julia Margaret Cameron: Working Methods. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved from
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/j/julia-margaret-cameron-working-methods/
Stansky, P.. (2004). [Review of Julia Margaret Cameron: Pioneer Photographer; From Life:
Julian Margaret Cameron & Victorian Photography; Julia Margaret Cameron: A
Critical Biography; Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs]. Albion: A
Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 36(2), 328–331. Retrieved from
http://doi.org/10.2307/4054249
Williams, B. B.. (1984). [Review of The Photographic Artifacts of Timothy O'Sullivan]. The
Western Historical Quarterly, 15(2), 229–230.Retrieved from
http://doi.org/10.2307/968550
