Publisher's Synopsis
The idea of 'art photography' is nearly as old as photography itself, but it wasn't until the 1850s that photographers began to claim fine-art status for their work. Debates about photography and its role raged internationally, but it was in England, through the work of Oscar Rejlander, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll and Clementina Hawarden in particular, that the new art found its fullest expression. These four artists formed the most unlikely of schools. Influenced by historic painting and working in close association with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, they formed a bridge between the art of the past and the art of the future, standing as true giants in Victorian photography.
