Julia Margaret Cameron: Photographs of Children

An exhibition of 20 portraits of children by Julia Margaret Cameron from the V&A’s collection, which were on show earlier this year at the V&A Museum of Childhood.

Cameron made over 200 photographs of children, but this is the first time that an exhibition has been devoted solely to them. The images explore Cameron’s vision of childhood, in which children are sacred and the embodiment of innocence. In doing so, her portraits contrast with the very formal Victorian portraiture which was commonplace at the time. 

In these portraits, few of the children wear clothes that would
have been considered normal day wear, instead, they are clad in chemises and nightwear or wrapped in draped fabrics. Drawing from paintings of angelic children with poses that refer to Renaissance compositions, Cameron strove to secure a position of high art for photography.