Writing Resources
This essay will analyse Julia Margaret Cameron’s illustration of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere to Tennyson's Idylls of the King and Other Poems guided by Lister and Wells 2004 methodology and template for the visual analysis I will elaborate how the Cameron's ideas are reflected in her photographic practice and contextualise this image within her body of works This consists of the context of how we encounter the image the context of production how the image can be read and how the viewer could be positioned in relation to the image This photograph fairly and beautifully represents Cameron s characteristic photographic style a leading influence of the pictorialist movement in the nineteenth century This includes discussion of the context in which we encounter the image how the image came to be produced a discussion of how the image can be read and some consideration of how the viewer is positioned in relation to the image I will contextualise this portrait within Nadar s overall practice and the wider context of their time and place In the centre of the picture Figure 1 rests Guinevere s tilting head as though in sleep Her soft slightly out of focus face reflects a holy glow and appears peaceful Reminiscent of Mary Magdalene and Madonna and Child a recurring theme in Cameron s photography see Figure 2 her head is upon Lancelot s chest close to his heart transforming Lancelot into a Christ figure Juxtaposing Guinevere in dark garments his eyes are open in solemn contemplation he echoes the suggestion that Christ knows his own fate whereas Guinevere is a shining light in their dark surroundings
