Inspired by Early Women Photographers: Julia Margaret Cameron and Gertrude Kasebier

It all started with Devotion, a photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron. The image brought memories of myself keeping a watchful eye on my babies when they slept. As a mother I constantly worry about well-being of my children. But when they sleep, and you hear their quiet even breath you know that they will be ok.

Victorian artists viewed children as natural, spiritualized beings, whose innocence was untouched by the experience of original sin. Cameron’s objective was to characterize children as paradigms of angelic beauty and virtue. She often dressed them in white to underline purity and give a sculptural quality. Cameron appeared to be indifferent to genders, having girls portray boys and vice versa.

I was so inspired by her images that I imitated them. I turned my bedroom into a photo studio one morning and had my son Sasha pretend to be sleeping while I leaned in to look at him. My imitation of Devotion.

Julia Margaret Cameron is one of the most known photographers of the nineteenth century. She seriously took up photography at 48 after her daughter and son-in-law gifted her a camera. Her photography style is said to have been influenced by the painter Sir William Newton, who suggested that photographers place their subjects a little out of focus to give a greater breadth of effect and artistic sensibility. Her first successful photograph was of a child, Annie, the image of who is blurred.

I have always strived to have sharp images but Cameron’s out of focus technique made me turn my shutter speed down, so I get a blur in a picture of my daughter Lydia. My imitation of Annie.

Another woman photographer who inspires me is Gertrude Kasebier. Gertrude Kasebier was a mother, an artist, a photographer, and a businesswoman. She was a founding member of Photo-Secession, an organization that promoted Pictorialism, a movement that sought to elevate the status of photography to a fine art. Kasebier was a mother and used photography to convey her feelings about childhood and motherhood. She believed in fostering children's intellectual growth and independence. Her photograph Blessed Art Thou Among Women depicts these beliefs. A mother standing with a daughter, giving her a nudge to step forward into the world through the door. I imitated this image with my daughter Lydia.