Photographer, known for her portraits of eminent people of the day, and for her romantic pictures. She was born in Calcutta to a well-to-do British family. One of seven sisters renowned in Anglo-Indian society for their intelligence and beauty, she remained a bit of an eccentric throughout her life. In 1838 she married Charles Hay Cameron, some years her elder and a distinguished jurist and legal reformer. They lived for a time in Ceylon, where they purchased a number of coffee and rubber plantations before returning to England in 1848 and eventually establishing themselves on the Isle of Wight. She picked up a camera for the first time in 1863 when she was 48 years old, after receiving the camera as a Christams gift from one of her six children. At the time, her husband was traveling abroad and her adult children had established homes of their own. Her subjects included many of the most famous people in England, such as poets Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning and Henry Taylor; painters George Frederic Watts and William Holman Hunt; scientists Charles Darwin and Sir John Herschel; authors Lewis Carroll and William Makepeace Thackeray; actress Ellen Terry; historian Thomas Carlyle; and explorer William Gifford Palgrave. Her photographic career ended at its peak in 1875, when the family fell on hard times. Her husband Charles decided he wished to spend his autumn years living with their sons on the plantations in Ceylon, where expenses were fewer. Cameron took her cameras with her, but few of her images have survived from this period—just a few portraits of the local plantation workers and domestic help. She died at the age of 63; her husband outlived her by one year.
Photographer, known for her portraits of eminent people of the day, and for her romantic pictures. She was born in Calcutta to a well-to-do British family. One of seven sisters renowned in Anglo-Indian society for their intelligence and beauty, she remained a bit of an eccentric throughout her life. In 1838 she married Charles Hay Cameron, some years her elder and a distinguished jurist and legal reformer. They lived for a time in Ceylon, where they purchased a number of coffee and rubber plantations before returning to England in 1848 and eventually establishing themselves on the Isle of Wight. She picked up a camera for the first time in 1863 when she was 48 years old, after receiving the camera as a Christams gift from one of her six children. At the time, her husband was traveling abroad and her adult children had established homes of their own. Her subjects included many of the most famous people in England, such as poets Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning and Henry Taylor; painters George Frederic Watts and William Holman Hunt; scientists Charles Darwin and Sir John Herschel; authors Lewis Carroll and William Makepeace Thackeray; actress Ellen Terry; historian Thomas Carlyle; and explorer William Gifford Palgrave. Her photographic career ended at its peak in 1875, when the family fell on hard times. Her husband Charles decided he wished to spend his autumn years living with their sons on the plantations in Ceylon, where expenses were fewer. Cameron took her cameras with her, but few of her images have survived from this period—just a few portraits of the local plantation workers and domestic help. She died at the age of 63; her husband outlived her by one year.
Bio by: julia&keld
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