Angels. “Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In,” National Portrait Gallery, 2024
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place, London
“In diverse cultural histories over millennia, angels have had the capacity to move between spiritual and earthly realms, the conscious and unconscious, and are often met in a dream or vision,” exhibition curator Magdalene Keaney writes in the catalogue for Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In. Like countless artists before them, both Woodman and Cameron created ethereal depictions of angels and otherworldly beings, each embracing the particular capabilities of photography. As a Victorian woman, Cameron staged young women and children in direct reference to biblical stories and mythological characters, popular subjects of the day. She used the technical possibilities and flaws of the medium to evoke auras and halos, heightening the dream-like space her subjects occupy. Woodman’s take on otherworldly beings—made some 100 years later—were influenced by years spent exploring Italian museums and churches both as a child and during a year spent studying in Rome. Her implied narratives are open-ended and symbolic. Her angels are active and performative—made possible by the very different technical capabilities of the medium of her era.
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