Elaine, The Lily Maid

"Elaine, The Lily Maid", Julia Margaret Cameron, 1874

Cameron, a woman in a man’s world, was harshly criticized when her work was published. Her use of soft focus and long exposure times created blurry and out of focus images, which went well outside the norms of photography in Victorian England. She is known mostly through her portrayal of woman in portraiture, and her ability to capture the essence of the female soul is unrivaled.