Light and Love: The Extraordinary Developments of Julia Margaret Cameron and Mary Hillier

Julia Margaret Cameron received her first camera at the age of forty-eight, but her love affair with the medium had already spanned several decades and continents. An enthusiast for this newly invented device, she traveled the world befriending experts&;such as the astronomer John Herschel; the pioneering photographer (and her brother-in-law) Charles Somers-Cocks, 3rd Earl Somers; and the Swedish risk-taking artist Oscar Rejlander&;who taught her the magic and the science of the lens. When fourteen-year-old Mary Hillier delivered a message to Julia&;s door, little did she know what her life would become. Beginning as Julia&;s parlor maid, Mary went on to become the photographer&;s leading model and the focus of the artist&;s creative passion. For Julia, Mary personified the heavenly qualities of her quiet corner of England. For Mary, Julia&;s influence would echo throughout her life. This is a biography of two women who experienced beauty, love, loss, and fame, and out of them created photographs that, in Julia&;s own words &;should electrify you with delight and startle the world." Spanning the French Revolution until the 1930s, and fully illustrated throughout, Light and Love tells the story of a rare partnership of a pioneer and her muse, and how their relationship would change the course of both of their lives.