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Following on from two previous tours the art historian Aneela de Soysa has arranged a further 14-day tour of Sri Lanka with a focus on Julia Margaret Cameron's final years in the country. Julia Margaret Cameron  was one of the most influential photographers of her nineteenth century and spent the last four years of her life in Ceylon. In 1875, aged 60, she and her husband Charles, then 80, left for British Ceylon to join four of their sons. By then she had made more than 1,000 photographs during a twelve-year career in England. Fewer than 30 of her Ceylon photographs survive.

The journey explores the social, cultural and economic context in which these final photographs were made, while introducing nineteenth-century colonial photography in Sri Lanka. Cameron's Ceylon images include plantation workers, villagers in Kalutara and portraits of the botanical artist Marianne North. The visit will also explore ancient sites which connect directly to the Cameron family: Hardinge Cameron was involved in restoration work at Anuradhapura, while Charles Hay Cameron made an early colonial drawing of the Sacred Bodhi Tree in 1830 after travelling through dense jungle to reach it.

Full details of the itinerary and cost can be found in the attached brochure which can be downloaded from the website, below. 

Sri Lanka: Julia Margaret Cameron. Photography, Empire and the Island
31 January-13 February 2027
led by Aneela de Soysa
https://www.aneeladesoysa.com/

This convening at Dimbola, Cameron's former home on the Isle of Wight, offers visits and talks reflecting on the poetry, theatricals, bohemian lifestyle, Christianity and myriad connections through Anglo-Indian society that inspired her photographs. Images have been selected from the several collections of Cameron’s work and in particular from the extensive RPS Collection at the V&A, together with others given to the V&A by Cameron herself or purchased from her.

Two recent developments have influenced the content of this event, Women of Influence: The Pattle Sisters currently showing at Watts Galley (closing 4 May 2026) with an accompanying publication and also new research by Aneela de Soysa into Julia Margaret Cameron’s final years of photography in Sri Lanka.

The programme includes a series of themed talks over two days - 5 and 6 June, plus optional visits and workshops. 

Friday, 5th June – This day focuses on CAMERON + FRESHWATER, with a guided tour by Chairman Brian Hinton, a walk on Tennyson’s Trail, and talks on her life before she began her career in photography.

Saturday, 6th June – The morning focuses on CAMERON + THEATRICS, with talks on G.F. Watts, the Pattle Sisters, and Cameron’s second studio and theatre. In the afternoon, we turn to another significant chapter of her life—CAMERON + CEYLON (current day Sri Lanka) —through a series of talks and a panel discussion.

Sunday, 7th June – The convening concludes with a hands-on cyanotype workshop and a final curated walk through Freshwater.

Pre-Convening Day – Thursday, 4th June - A guided tour of Farringford, home of the Tennysons from 1853 to 1892; Queen Victoria’s Osborne House; and All Saints Church in Freshwater, the final resting place of several members of Cameron’s Freshwater circle. Contact the co-organiser directly to take part.

See the full programme and book here.

Image (detail): Julia Margaret Cameron, 'A Group of Kalutara Peasants', albumen print, 1878. RPS Collection at the V&A Museum, London.