From Life: Julia Margaret Cameron and Victorian Photography
"...[a] savvy, scrupulously researched new biography. Ms. Olsen, a freelance scholar, offers an especially lucid description of Cameron's arduous techniques, involving nasty chemicals, fragile glass plates and endless endurance. The great strength of her book, though, is her argument that Cameron's story is also, as she puts it, "the story of Victorian culture itself, and the development of mass media."
"Victoria Olsen has written an excellent full scale biography which draws much of its strength from the considerable number of unpublished letters she has unearthed."
-Independent on Sunday
"...a well-written and deeply researched book in which Olsen makes skillful use of the voluminous Cameron correspondence and makes her subject...come vividly to live."
-The Times Higher Education Supplement
"Highly accomplished...Olsen's biography of Cameron is particularly good at making us understand just how uncertain mid-Victorians were about what photography was actually for."
-Sunday Telegraph
"Victoria Olsen's biographical account is deftly written and well-crafted, using the latest research and unpublished letters."
-The Independent
"Olsen patiently uncovers [Cameron's interest in photography] that went back to the mid-1850's and a series of contacts with other pioneers...well researched and decently illustrated."
-The Sunday Times
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Co-edited with Christina Boufis
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