Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In

The National Portrait Gallery brings together the work of Julia Margaret Cameron and Francesca Woodman and considers how these two very different artists transformed photographic portraiture (21 March­­–16 June). Though roughly a hundred years separated the two, with Cameron living and working in the 19th century and Woodman in the 20th, they both took a highly experimental approach to their medium. Neither used photography primarily as a means of documentation or to capture a likeness, but rather to tell stories and explore notions of identity, gender and beauty. Used in this way, as Woodman explained in 1980, photography offers ‘an alternative to everyday life: places for the viewer to dream in’. The exhibition spans the careers of both artists, featuring more than 160 rare prints, drawn from museums, galleries and private collections across the world. Find out more from the National Portrait Gallery’s website.

Pomona (Alice Liddell) (1872), Julia Margaret Cameron. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Polka Dots #5 (1976), Francesca Woodman. Courtesy Woodman Family Foundation; © Woodman Family Foundation/DACS, London

Untitled (1977), Francesco Woodman. Courtesy Woodman Family Foundation; © Woodman Family Foundation/DACS, London