From Life

Called "savvy and scrupulously researched" by the New York Times, this is the first full-length biography of Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron to place her in historical and artistic context. After a conventional life as a wife and mother in British India, Cameron took up photography when she was 48 years old and never looked back. Her portraits of celebrities like Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle disrupted expectations for photography and caused controversy among critics who condemned her technique. This biography draws on unpublished letters and new research to put Cameron's pioneering art and life in perspective.