In 1863, when Cameron was 48 years old, her daughter gave her a camera as a present, thereby starting her career as a photographer. Within a year, Cameron became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. She remained a member of the Photographic Society, London, until her death. In her photography, Cameron strove to capture beauty. She wrote, “I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied.”
The basic techniques of soft-focus “fancy portraits”, which she later developed, were taught to her by David Wilkie Wynfield. She later wrote that “to my feeling about his beautiful photography I owed all my attempts and indeed consequently all my success”.
Paul and Virginia, 1864
Mrs. Herbert Duckworth, 1872
Annie; ‘My first success,’ 1864
May Day, 1866
Lady Adelaide Talbot, May 1865
Lady Adelaide Talbot, May 1865
Christabel, 1866
Beatrice 1866
Circe, 1865
Hosanna 1865
Vivien and Merlin from Illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, 1874
Lady Elcho / A Dantesque Vision, 1865
Resting in Hope; La Madonna Riposata, 1864
St. Agnes, 1864
The Dream, 1869
Henry Taylor, October 10, 1867
Charles Darwin, 1868
Portrait of Herschel, April 1867
The Five Foolish Virgins, 1864
Henry Cole, 1868
Il Penseroso, 1864–1865
Long-Suffering, Gentleness, Goodness
Summer Days, 1866
Sappho, 1865
The Passing Of Arthur, 1875. From Illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and Other Poems, Volume II.
Kate Dore, C. 1863
