Portraits to dream of – pioneering female photographers with a difference of a century
An untitled image by Francesca Woodman from 1976 Photo: TB
Legend has it that Julia Margaret Cameron's last word as she lay on her deathbed on a tea plantation in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1879 was "beauty." Her version of beauty was somewhat classical and in keeping with the Pre-Raphaelite ideals of her time: pious, pure and white - long, wavy hair, flower crowns and translucent dresses. She became an expert at maintaining this vision, using the sliding box camera she received as a gift at age 49 to master both the wet collodian process, in which a piece ...