The year 2015 marked the bicentenary of the birth of Calcutta-born photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. In eight short statements, researchers and curators will reflect on the status of the Victorian photographer in the history of photography at large while also using her work as a springboard to think about the present and the future of an increasingly globally conceived historical field. Besides historiographical contributions, some speakers will contemplate on their previous research on Julia Margaret Cameron and how they see it today, while others will present new insights, for example on Cameron’s colonial work made in Ceylon or her intellectual connections with networks of scientists, artists and collectors.

Chaired by Geraldine Johnson and Richard Ovenden, with contributions by Mirjam Brusius, Elizabeth Edwards, Nichole Fazio-Veigel, Colin Ford, Pamela Roberts, Larry J. Schaaf, Emilia Terracciano and Marta Weiss.

This symposium will feature a small display: Julia Margaret Cameron: The Henry Taylor Album

The photographs of Victoria photographic pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) can be found in a number of albums held at the Bodleian Library, amongst it an album, which she had compiled for Sir Henry Taylor. But beyond her friendship with the dramatist the Calcutta-born photographer was connected to a wide range of 19th century artists and savants. Some of these friends received albums as gifts specifically compiled for them while others collected her photographs for pleasure or as a means of support of the contested photographer. This display showcases works by Cameron, supplementing the Taylor Album by letters and further photographic items. Tracing the individual histories of these objects reveals much about the movement of photographs over decades and about the intellectual ownership networks in which they circulated.

Tickets are free, but space is limited, so please register to attend: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whats-on/upcoming-events/2016/jan/photography