May Day by Julia Margaret Cameron was a photograph that was taken in 1866. This photo has five people with the centered woman being the focus. This photo is mainly explained with, “Cameron’s maid Mary Ryan plays the title character of Tennyson’s poem ‘The May Queen’. The photograph shows the English rural custom of crowning a young and beautiful girl as Queen of the May on the first of that month” (May day V&A). There is also a resemblance to the painting called “The Beloved” by Rossetti.
In this image, the maid that is centered in the photo is portrayed to have the most importance. This would appear to be true due to the meaning of the photo having to do with the maid representing the May Queen and this is shown even further due to the maid being the only one looking back at the camera. Flowers also bring out the maid as the focal point of the image and allows the viewer’s eyes to be drawn to the center of the photo immediately. The staging allows for the background to not feel packed even though there are five people taking up most of the background with the addition to the flowers and hats that are worn.
Another aspect to keep in mind is that this photograph is taken early into her career as a photographer. Knowing that this is early on is shown with, “Cameron had much more contact than previously thought with professional photographers before she herself began making photographs in 1864” (Green-Lewis 615). Cameron had been in contact with other photographers to learn about techniques used in taking photos and tried to employ them in this photograph. May Day was taken when she had switched over a new camera that allowed her to focus on portraits of those in the picture. Having this larger space allowed her to pack in all five people into the frame, each looking in a different direction than one another. The expressions on all of the people’s faces almost appear upset by something which shows the emotion since all have a similar expression.
Cameron had been able to represent those involved in a positive light in photographs such as this one. Cameron is shown to demonstrate this view with, “Cameron’s photographs not only pronounce how they are made but also identify the locus and condition of their making as that of the female domain of the home” (Bear 92). The photo itself does not have anything outstanding when it comes to technique, however, the way in which those involved are presented feels natural. The women in the photograph are wearing natural dresses, this showing no use of crinolines or any further fashion, only a realistic shape. The natural setting and staging of the photo allow for the calming or saddening emotion to be evoked due to either the flowers set around or the sad expressions of those pictured.
Within this photo, there is a resemblance to “The Beloved” by Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites. This is explained further with, “Particularly in early Pre-Raphaelite painting, the artistic brush emulates the camera’s supposed perfection, a technique that aligns with views of PreRaphaelite inspiration as derived from nature” (Witcher 205). The technique used in the paintings of the time were somewhat mimicked in this photograph. From the framing of the photo, all the way to the emotion is seen within Pre-Raphaelite artworks. Cameron being able to replicate the emotion and the atmosphere of the style of paintings through the way in which she took this photo shows her approach. She is able to give her art pieces their own spiritual uniqueness that is able to show the people of the time in a natural way. This is explained as her being able to add aspects of spirituality to her photos in the way she goes about capturing the moment.
Cameron is able to use many components of the subjects in this photograph such as emotion and fashion to portray the time within this single moment. She is able to show all of this without any extensive techniques and more so in her own approach to taking photos. Cameron was able to have the sad expressions exemplify the mood of the portrait and even the lack of color, perhaps not by choice, allows for this nice yet somber feeling throughout the photo. Her use of her maid as the centerpiece to represent the May Queen has relevance too in that there was more of a focus on capturing the feeling and less on having those of high status involved. Overall, Cameron was able to express a lot through a single moment frozen in time.
Work Cited
Bear, Jordan. “The Silent Partner: Agency and Absence in Julia Margaret Cameron's Collaborations.” Grey Room, vol. 48, 2012, pp. 78–101., doi:10.1162/grey_a_00081.
Green-Lewis, Jennifer. “From Life: The Story of Julia Margaret Cameron and Victorian Photography (Review).” Biography, vol. 27, no. 3, 2004, pp. 613–617., doi:10.1353/bio.2004.0065.
“May Day: Cameron, Julia Margaret.” V&A Search the Collections, collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O69996/may-day-photograph-cameron-julia-margaret/.
“May Day, Julia Margaret Cameron, 1866 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.” Wall Street International, 17 June 2015, wsimag.com/victoria-and-albert-museum/artworks/72943.
Witcher, Heather. “‘Art of the Future’: Julia Margaret Cameron's Poetry, Photography, and Pre-Raphaelitism.” Victorian Studies, vol. 61, no. 2, 2019, p. 204., doi:10.2979/victorianstudies.61.2.04.