RAMM - Early British Photographs from the Royal Collection

Photographs from the Royal Collection by two of Britain’s most accomplished photographers of the nineteenth century: Roger Fenton (1819-69) and Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79).

Roger Fenton • Julia Margaret Cameron: Early British Photographs from the Royal Collection profiles two of Britain’s most accomplished photographers of the nineteenth century. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were enthusiastic patrons of photography. Generously lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection this exhibition is particularly auspicious since RAMM was founded in Prince Albert’s name and the reopening coincides with the 150th anniversary of his death.

Roger Fenton (1819-69) worked in a variety of genres, producing portraits, still life, architecture, landscape and documentary photographs. From 1842 Fenton was invited to Windsor Castle and to Buckingham Palace, producing a series of portraits of the Queen, Prince Albert and their six children. He had unprecedented access to the private life of the royal family. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert also purchased a number of Fenton’s commercial photographs, including his views of Windsor Castle and the surrounding parkland taken c1860.

Following Prince Albert’s premature death in 1861, Queen Victoria’s interest in photography focused primarily on portraits of her family and of leading personalities of the day. Julia Margaret Cameron’s (1815-79) portraits were unlike anything produced by contemporary studio-based photographers. Perhaps the finest example of Cameron’s portraiture and characteristic ‘out-of-focus’ technique is her photograph of Thomas Carlyle, the most celebrated historian and essayist of the 19th century.

The accompanying book, Roger Fenton • Julia Margaret Cameron: Early British Photographs from the Royal Collection by Sophie Gordon, is published by Royal Collection Publications