Cameron was born in June of 1815 in Calcutta, India. Her family were French aristocrats and Cameron's father worked for the East India Trading Company. She was educated in France, and married Charles Hay Cameron (who happened to be 20 years older than her.) When he retired, they moved to the Isle of Wight off the coast of England.
Cameron didn't start photographing until she was 48. Her daughter gave her a camera for her birthday, which started Cameron's career as a photographer. She moved in with high society circles and began photographing them along with her children. Because of her location, Cameron was right next to a thriving artist community which allowed her to shoot famous people of the day. Some of them include Sir John Herschel, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Cameron also shot recreations of her favorite literary and painted scenes.
Cameron was best known for these portraits which were different than those of earlier photographs. She would slightly blur her photos by either moving the subject slightly during long exposures or by keeping the lens slightly unfocused. She also cropped the photos close to the subject, which created a more intimate look at them since they could be seen close up. Cameron had a main goal of shooting things that were beautiful so she utilized the use of soft lighting in her subjects.
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lots of background information
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