Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography

Oscar Rejlander, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll and Clementina Hawarden embody the very best of Victorian photography

The work of Oscar Rejlander (1813–75), Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79), Lewis Carroll (1832–98) and Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822–65) embodies the very best of photography from the Victorian era. These giants of 19th-century photography experimented with new approaches to picture-making and shaped attitudes toward photography that have informed artistic practice ever since. Discover the images that made the case for the photograph as a work of art in this beautiful book.

These four artists―a Swedish émigré with a mysterious past, a middle-aged Ceylonese expatriate, an Oxford academic and writer of fantasy literature, and a Scottish countess―formed the unlikeliest of schools. Both Carroll and Cameron studied under Rejlander briefly, and maintained a lasting association based around intersecting approaches to portraiture and narrative. Influenced by historical painting and working in close association with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, they formed a bridge between the art of the past and the art of the future.

In her foreword to this volume, the Duchess of Cambridge writes: “photographs of children in particular, which feature predominately in the exhibition, are of real interest to me ... these photographs allow us to reflect on the importance of preserving and appreciating childhood while it lasts.”