The Late-Blooming Lens: Julia Margaret Cameron’s Photographic Revolution

June 11, 1815

Today is the birthday of Julia Margaret Cameron, the mother of photography, who was born on this day, in Calcutta.

A woman who dared to begin her artistic journey at an age when most have resigned themselves to the mundane predictability of middle years.

In 1863, Cameron was given a camera by her daughter and son-in-law and made her first photograph at the age of 49.

Imagine that, dear readers - discovering one's life passion just as society expects one to fade gracefully into the background!

Her niece, Virginia Woolf wrote, that the camera was,

"At last, an outlet for the energies that she had dissipated in poetry and fiction, in doing up houses, in concocting curries, and entertaining her friends."

At the time, Cameron had moved to the Isle of Wight; an island off the southern coast of England. A retreat of sorts, though not one where she intended to while away her hours in quiet contemplation!

On the Isle of Wight, Julia Margaret Cameron converted a henhouse in her garden into her darkroom and another building into her studio.

How delicious that the humble dwelling of fowl should transform into the birthplace of artistic revolution!

One might say she quite literally hatched her creative vision where others merely collected eggs.

One of her most famous photos is called The Rosebud Garden of Girls, a phrase is taken from Tennyson's Come Into the Garden, Maude. The poet himself was her neighbor and frequent subject - proximity to greatness serving her ambitions splendidly.

The photo was taken in June 1868. It shows four beautiful, young, Victorian women wearing the white robes you'd find on a Greek goddess.

The garden setting speaks to us even now, does it not?

For are we gardeners not always seeking to capture perfect, ephemeral beauty before it slips away?

The photo's setting is a lush garden.

The girls' hair flows freely down past their shoulders.

They each hold blossom as they each cast their gaze far off in slightly different directions.

One cannot help but wonder what visions they see beyond the frame, what futures they imagine while frozen forever in Cameron's artistic amber.

It's a very dreamy, almost trance-like, innocent image; The Rosebud Garden of Girls.

Though I daresay the innocence was more carefully constructed than authentic - Cameron was notorious for her demanding sessions, keeping her subjects posed for hours until achieving precisely the effect she desired.

What Cameron teaches us, my dear garden enthusiasts, is that it is never too late to plant new seeds of passion.

That sometimes the most extraordinary blooms emerge from the most unexpected places - be they converted henhouses or the minds of middle-aged women whom society had already categorized and dismissed.

So as you tend your gardens today, consider what dormant talents might yet await their awakening within you.

What creative harvests might you reap if only you dare to begin?