Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) was almost fifty - and practically self-taught - when she took up photography seriously, yet she produced some of the most innovative and visually striking portraits of her time. Her novel use of lighting and focus transformed portraiture and helped secure the acceptance of photography as an expressive art. An introductory monograph on one of the most important women photographers of all time, with 55 chronologically sequenced pictures.

Joanne Lukitsh is a professor of Art History at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She has written and lectured extensively on Julia Margaret Cameron, and has also written on American photography, including work on Alfred Stieglitz's early photographs. Professor Lukitsh has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Paul Mellon Centre for the Study of British Art.