A two-and-a-half-day convening at Julia Margaret Cameron’s former home on the Isle of Wight, exploring Cameron and her circle through place, theatre, and photography.

Julia Margaret Cameron: From Freshwater to Ceylon

Co-organised by Carolyn Bloore + Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin

Thursday 4 June – Sunday 7 June 2026 Dimbola, Freshwater, Isle of Wight

Elected to membership of the Photographic Society of London (later the Royal) in 1864, Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographs regained popularity during the mid-20th century notably through research by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. In their influential The History of Photography (1955), the Gernsheims recalled a review of Cameron’s work from The Illustrated London News of May 1865 as ‘the most bold and successful application of the principles of fine art to photography’. Interest was renewed in 1975 when Colin Ford, then Keeper of Film and Photography at the National Portrait Gallery, was instrumental in preventing the export of an important album that Cameron had personally compiled for her friend Sir John Herschel.

This convening at Dimbola, Cameron's former home on the Isle of Wight, offers visits and talks reflecting on the poetry, theatricals, bohemian lifestyle, Christianity and myriad connections through Anglo-Indian society that inspired her photographs. Images have been selected from the several collections of Cameron’s work and in particular from the extensive RPS Collection at the V&A, together with others given to the V&A by Cameron herself or purchased from her.

Two recent developments have influenced the content of this event, Women of Influence: The Pattle Sisters currently showing at Watts Galley (closing 4 May 2026) with an accompanying publication and also new research by Aneela de Soysa into Julia Margaret Cameron’s final years of photography in Sri Lanka.