Julia Margaret Cameron

To mark the bicentenary of the birth of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), one of the most important and experimental photographers of the 19th century, the V&A will present 100 of her photographs from the Museum’s collection. The exhibition will examine her relationship with the V&A’s founding director, Sir Henry Cole, who presented the first museum exhibition of her work (and the only one during her lifetime). It will include a number of works given and sold directly by Cameron to the Museum, letters written by Cameron to Cole that reveal her questions on technical and practical matters, and Sir Henry Cole’s diary which describes sitting for a portrait by Cameron. The works on display will show Cameron’s technical experiments in striving to make highly artistic photographs which she expected would ‘electrify you with delight and startle the world’.