Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Possibly 1868 - 1875

This is Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographic print of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Cameron, a British photographer working in the 1860s, was interested in the status of photography as art. Cameron’s soft-focus and intimate portraits challenged the norms of the photographic societies of her time. Photography’s relationship to painting and portraiture has always been fraught. Photography in Victorian England was still a relatively new medium. What was its social function? Was it for faithful documentation, or for personal and artistic expression? The prominence of Longfellow, a celebrated American poet, suggests the artistic aspirations of Cameron. Her association with such a figure signaled her ambition to be considered among the artistic and intellectual elite. To understand this image better, we can examine the institutional discourses around art and photography at the time. This reveals the complex ways in which social status and artistic value were negotiated in Victorian England. It is through this historical analysis that the meaning of art comes to life.