Julia Margaret Cameron
English, 1815-1879
Untitled (Ceylon), 1875/79
Albumen print
Julia Margaret Cameron gained renown for documenting "famous men and fair women" of her day, producing portraits and allegorical groups that were widely admired for their intimacy and emotional depth. In 1875 straitened financial circumstances forced her to move from her comfortable home on the Isle of Wight, where she was close to many luminaries of Victorian England, and take up residence on her family's coffee plantation in Ceylon. Cameron became enthralled with what she called "the primitive simplicity of the inhabitants," although she concentrated on only a few models-the Tamil women posing here were most likely maidservants working on her plantation. Beset by technical difficulties resulting from the warm and humid cli-mate, and deprived of the audience she had enjoyed in England, Cameron produced only a few photographs in these final years in Ceylon.
