The National Portrait Gallery’s new publication, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In draws parallels between both photographers with new fresh research, rare vintage prints, and previously unseen archival materials alongside some of their best-known photographs.The book accompanies the exhibition of the same name opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London (21st March – 16th June).
Living and working over a century apart, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) and Francesca Woodman (1958–1981) experienced very different ways of making and understanding photographs. Yet the two share more similarities than expected. This publication presents the artists’ exploration of portraiture as a ‘dream space’, but also includes exciting new research and contributions on both artists, as well as number of works that are being published for the first time.
Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In makes new connections between their work, which pushed the boundaries of the photographic medium, and highlights their experimentation with ideas of symbolism, transformation and storytelling.
“Both Woodman and Cameron worked for a relatively short and concentrated period; neither was active for more than a decade and a half. Not either enjoyed significant critical or popular success in their lifetimes. Yet both left an influential body of work that has shaped the history of photography and has posthumously received widespread attention and reassessment.” Magdalene Keaney
The book includes ten thematic sections interspersed with the works of both artists, but the publication begins with three feature essays, which consider Cameron and Woodman simultaneously. One of which is written by curator of the exhibition Magdalene Keaney and is an extended in-depth piece that is a major new contribution to the field, offering new ways to think about the work of both photographers and about the relationships between 19th and 20th century photography and portraiture.
Also writing for the exhibition publication is leading and highly-respected photo historian and writer specialising in women photographers Helen Ennis who was awarded the Royal Photographic Society J Dudley Johnston medal in 2021.
Portraits to Dream In includes works by Julia Margaret Cameron from the collections of major international museums including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Science Museum Group; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the National Portrait Gallery’s own collection. Prints made by Francesca Woodman in her lifetime, nearly 20 of which have not been previously published or exhibited, as well as presenting a number of letters, sketches and contact sheets from the Woodman archive which have been provided primarily by the Woodman Family Foundation in New York, who have collaborated closely on the creation of the publication.
The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to be able to bring this exhibition and accompanying book to new audiences and devoted followers of both Woodman and Cameron, to offer an inspiring and fresh take on their inimitable work.
Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In published on the 21 March alongside the opening of the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition, and is available to pre-order from the Gallery’s online shop: https://npgshop.org.uk/collections/books/products/francesca-woodman-julia-margaret-cameron-portraits-to-dream-in-hardcover
Comments
Let's be reminded Magdalene Keaney's phrase within the book about the exhibition's two women photographers Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron "Not either enjoyed significant critical or popular success in their lifetimes" sadly speaks of rampant misogyny of the times where women of inestimable talent and ability culturally and artistically in so much were dismissed and ignored against a regard by machismo supremacism that 'the fair sex', if they were to find themselves suitably married off, should merely be expected to 'sew a fine seam' and organise nicely a 'home sweet home' and give up all pretentions of ability and talent they may have delighted in before being exhorted with marriage vows to 'stand by their man'.