Nature and Femininity. "Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In," National Portrait Gallery, 2024
![L to R: Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” 1978, 4 11/16 x 4 11/16 in. (11.908 x 11.908 cm). Gelatin silver print / Julia Margaret Cameron. “Pomona,” September 1872, 363 x 264 mm. Albumen print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Francesca Woodman. "Untitled,” c. 1972-72, 6 1/16 x 5 13/16 in. (15.4 x 14.765 cm). Gelatin silver print / Julia Margaret Cameron. “Mary Hillier,” 1874, 372 x 282 mm. Albumen print. Victoria and Albert Museum / Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” 1979, 3 13/16 x 3 13/16 in. (9.685 x 9.685 cm). Gelatin silver print / Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” 1980, 3 1/8 x 5 in. (7.938 x 12.7 cm). Gelatin silver print with ink / Julia Margaret Cameron. “Mrs Herbert Fisher” (Mary Louisa Jackson), 1867, 344 x 265 mm. Albumen print. Wilson Centre for Photography / Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” 1979, 5 7/8 x 5 15/16 in. (14.923 x 15.083 cm). Gelatin silver print / Julia Margaret Cameron. “[Alethea],” 1872, 325 x 238 mm. Albumen print. The J. Paul Getty Museum. All Francesca Woodman artworks © Woodman Family Foundation / DACS, London.](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5d8073c5ddf5281c25cdcc3e/6660c9bec689e4202541f6c1_1.png)
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place, London
Although both Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron are well-known for the portraits they made indoors—in studios converted from domestic or industrial spaces—each artist significantly explored the female subject in nature.
At times, their sitters are enveloped by the landscape, and in other instances, delicate natural elements are positioned in relation to their features. Woodman, working in the 1970s during feminism’s second wave in the United States, was able to freely depict the body and its active presence, her own comment on the mythic relationship between nature and femininity. “Yet Cameron sought to represent the women she photographed with complexity and depth beyond the jewel-like perfection of surface appearance,” curator Magdalene Keaney writes. “Her female sitters are among her most experimental and expressive, and enable an articulation of gender representation in the Victorian period, extending the conventional placement of women in restrictive spheres, such as the home or the walled garden.” Viewing these photographs alongside Woodman’s underscores Cameron’s radicality, which is difficult to perceive today.
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