In this academic piece of study I will focus on the life and work of Julia Margaret Cameron and discuss to what extent her photographic practice was influenced, restricted or enabled by operating in a male dominated profession. By the end of this essay the reader should understand how she strove through the negative feedback and criticism she received. She was not particularily appreciated then as a professional photographer, but is now one of the most inspirational woman photographers of the 19th century. Julia Margaret Cameron was a British pioneer for woman doing photography. Cameron was born on 11th June 1815- and died 26th January 1879.
Cameron was born in Calcutta in 1815 and educated in France, then eventually moved back to Calcutta and got married at the age of twenty three to a notable civil servant who was twenty years older than her. His name was Charles Hay Cameron She became Calcutta’s leading hostess, and went on to look after the household and conceived six children. Her first and only daughter she was so happy about she named her Julia after herself. Following that were five more sons, one of them who she named Henry, after a close friend of hers who made a large impact on her life. Julia and her husbands marriage was longlasting and fulfilled with happiness despite their age difference and they they had similar creative interests.
(book reference) Women in the 19th century were not encouraged to do photography as it was a strongly male dominated profession. Very few women had the resources to set up professional full-time photographic studios even though they were present in all stages of photographic creations. For instance, wives of male photographers were often used in their work, such as Felix Bonfils wife...
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...lf into whatever she undertook, her rare forgetfulness of self and readiness to help others, endeared her to a wide circle of friends.” The phenomenal quality and strength in her work was unfortunately not particulary very recognisable by much of the general public during her lifetime. After Julias death in 1879 her photographs were practically discarded for about one hundred years, but thankfully now is being much more appreciated. The exhibitions held for her work have helped restore and distinguish Julia’s exceptional skill. I have learnt through my research for this study that Cameron was an exceptional woman who made a striking impact on the victorian social and photographic scene which influences not only amateur and professional photographers but anyone who is fascinated in women of the victorian times and how they strove to become a greater part of society.
In her second year, Vera became one of Varley’s drawing students. The two became close over the years, but it wasn’t until her postgraduate years at VSDAA that their relationship flourished. As a “shy and beautiful” young woman who “moved with a grace” similar to that of a Japanese Tea party, Molly Bobak Lamb remarks that it was easy for men to become infatuated with Vera’s. Varley’s Vera paintings success as a Willingdon Prize winner, a collection piece at the National Gallery of Canada, and eventually praised with its creation into a postage stamp only confirms Molly’s suggestion of Vera’s enchanting capabilities.
"History of Art: History of Photography." History of Art: History of Photography. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2014. .
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
Alice Neel's most talked about painting, a Self-Portrait of herself, shocked the world when she painted herself in the nude at the age of 80-years-old. Neel, a 20th Century American Portrait Artist, painted models for over 50 years before turning the attention to herself (Tamara Garb). Neel wasn't a pinup girl and had depicted herself as the complete opposite (Jeremy Lewison). Unlike Neel, women avoided self-portraits of themselves, and nude self-portraits barely made it to canvas (Tamara Garb). Because of these reasons alone, Neel's Self-Portrait attracted scrutiny (Jeremy Lewison). Though Neel declared the painting to be frightful and indecent (Ibid), it still directed its focus on femininity, and the challenges women had to endure in our
Prior to the 20th century, female artists were the minority members of the art world (Montfort). They lacked formal training and therefore were not taken seriously. If they did paint, it was generally assumed they had a relative who was a relatively well known male painter. Women usually worked with still lifes and miniatures which were the “lowest” in the hierarchy of genres, bible scenes, history, and mythological paintings being at the top (Montfort). To be able to paint the more respected genres, one had to have experience studying anatomy and drawing the male nude, both activities considered t...
In many twentieth century photographs, women were portrayed in a domestic and simple way. In Riis’s photograph, Scene on the Roof of the Mott Street Barracks , a woman was
Tolmachev, I. (2010, March 15). A history of Photography Part 1: The Beginning. Retrieved Febraury 2014, from tuts+ Photography: http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/a-history-of-photography-part-1-the-beginning--photo-1908
Gill Perry’s writing “Women in Disguise: Likeness, The Grand Style and the Conventions of Feminine Portraiture in the Work of Sir Joshua Reynolds” deeply explores the construction and meaning behind the female portrait paintings done by Joshua Reynolds. Joshua Reynolds was a renowned portrait painter and Founder and President of the Royal Academy of Arts. His artistic life consisted much of full length portraits of many men, women, and children. His most significant work, however, was his portraits of women. Gill Perry analyzed his works and has come to the conclusion that the art created by Joshua Reynolds often aimed to be equal to literature, particularly in his feminine portraits. He created non conventional feminine portraits by means of disguise and distinguished ladies with looks of power, which is an unheard of means for feminine portraits of this age.
When concerning the home front of 19th century Europe, women were “the cult of domesticity” and were highly regarded as wives, mothers, and part of the working class. A lofty character was necessary in completing the demanding tasks surrounding the home life. Images of women ranging from newspapers to fine art all displayed the univ...
I recently went to the DeYoung Museum for the Impressionist exhibit. The paintings were exquisite, as expected, but what was shocking was only one female artist out of all the others shown, were by male artists. It parallels with what I have been learning in class, that women artist were completely underrepresented and suppressed because of their gender. I will be describing a brief synopsis about Mary Cassatt’s life. Then I will be talking about the subject of the woman, her mother, in the painting. And finally, what caught my attention to Mary Cassatt’s, Mrs. Robert S. Cassatt, the Artist’s Mother painting, done in 1889, and my art analysis of her piece.
Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,
The book Mary Reilly is the sequel to the famous The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, is a stark, ingeniously woven, engaging novel. That tells the disturbing tale of the dual personality of Dr. Jekyll, a physician. A generous and philanthropic man, his is preoccupied with the problems of good and evil and with the possibility of separating them into two distinct personalities. He develops a drug that transforms him into the demonic Mr. Hyde, in whose person he exhausts all the latent evil in his nature. He also creates an antidote that will restore him into his respectable existence as Dr. Jekyll. Gradually, however, the unmitigated evil of his darker self predominates, until finally he performs an atrocious murder. His saner self determines to curtail those alternations of personality, but he discovers that he is losing control over his transformations, that he slips with increasing frequency into the world of evil. Finally, unable to procure one of the ingredients for the mixture of redemption, and on the verge of being discovered, he commits suicide.
Born to Nettie Lee Smith and Bill Smith on December 18, 1918 in Wichita, Kansas was William Eugene Smith, who would later revolutionize photography. His mother Nettie was into photography, taking photos of her family, especially her two sons as they grew up, photographing events of their lives (Hughes 2). Photography had been a part of Smith’s life since he was young. At first it started out always being photographed by his mother, and then turned into taking photographs along with his friend Pete, as he got older. They often practiced developing photos in Nettie’s kitchen, and he later began to create albums with his photographs. His photographs diff...
Women desire to become beautiful and powerful, even if they don’t say it in words. And the Photographer plays with that concept and creates that desire, that you can become that person you see in the photograph. And live that lifestyle. Photographers use techniques from the cinema/cinematic, to create the desire of viewers/Buyer/Consumers. The cinematic techniques made it possible the way people lived and the...
Sophie Calle, professor of film and photography at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, is a renowned contemporary French artist. Sophie Calle is also a photographer of considerable acumen. As an educationist she has taught photography since 2005 at post-graduate level. Born in Paris, France in October of 1953, Sophie Calle is daughter to the also renowned Robert Calle. In her biography posted on the university page (www.egs.edu), it is claimed that the early associations and integration into her father’s social circles exposed her to a number of artists who influenced her decision to become an artist herself. Sophie Calle became an artist back in the 70’s and has since then recorded a myriad of artworks that includes writings, poetry, pictures and paintings. This essay will try to examine the underlying theme existent in the works of Sophie Calle as a means of better understanding her person. For the purpose of this essay, mainly the photographic works of Sophie shall be discussed.