Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Dirty Monk) c. 1865 - 1893

Julia Margaret Cameron captured this portrait of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the famed Victorian poet, sometime in the 1860s using the wet collodion process. Cameron, a woman of considerable privilege, turned to photography relatively late in life. Here, Tennyson is captured with a soft focus, his gaze intense, and his presentation far from the polished images typically associated with Victorian nobility. The nickname, "Dirty Monk", suggests a tension between Tennyson’s public image and his more private, perhaps disheveled, self. It invites us to consider the performance of identity, particularly for figures in the public eye. Cameron, as a female photographer in a male-dominated field, likely understood the complexities of constructing an image. This portrait unsettles the rigid gender roles of the era by presenting a powerful man in a vulnerable, almost raw state. It prompts us to reflect on the multifaceted nature of identity and the ways in which social expectations can both shape and constrain us.