Visitors of sensitive disposition smell unearthly chemical vapours wafting through Dimbola Lodge Museum, and wonder if it is haunted by the memory of Mrs Cameron, still busy with her work.
Julia Margaret Cameron
Dimbola Lodge houses a permanent exhibition of Victorian pioneer portrait photographer Julia Margaret Cameron’s work; and continues to be a world-class inspirational centre for the arts.
Internationally eminent artists and creative thinkers come to present talks and exhibit works; for Dimbola is one of the island’s greatest art venues.
However, some of sensitive disposition smell unearthly chemical vapours and wonder if it is Mrs Cameron busy mixing silver nitrate and acetic acid; unimpressed by the easy immediacy of our digital age.
Others who attended on occasion claim to smell more ‘earthy’ unearthly odours of putrefaction.
This is described as a classic residual, or intelligent haunting tied to Cameron's strong creative life at the property.
An environmental imprint haunting.
Julia Margaret Cameron Profile
Born in midsummer of 1815 in Calcutta, India, Julia Margaret Cameron was the third of seven daughters of high-ranking, hard-drinking Scottish civil servant James Prattle and his aristocratic French wife, whose family had served in the court of French King Louis 16th.
In 1838 in India she married the aristocratic Charles, twenty years her senior. She was his second wife.
Mrs Watts, wife of Victorian artist G.F. described Mrs Cameron so:
‘To all who knew her she was a unique figure, baffling all description. She doubled the generosity of the most generous of the sisters, and the impulsiveness of the most impulsive. If they were enthusiastic, she was so twice over; if they were persuasive, she was invincible.
If she had little of the beauty of her sisters, she certainly had remarkably fine eyes that flashed like her sayings, or grew soft and tender if she was moved.’
Victorian letters remembered Dimbola Lodge, sun-drenched garlanded to its roof with roses. Mrs Cameron planted primroses and sweet briar, and raised a tower so Dimbola would look beautiful to her friends as they walked up from the bay.
Even nature conspired to create an archway in the water that she might enjoy in the years ahead.
Some villagers say she was as much the genius of Freshwater as neighbour and internationally-famous poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and doubtless he would agree.
She invited, enticed and kidnapped his famous visitors to Dimbola where she posed them as characters in his poems, or anything else that took her fancy; then subjected them to the mysterious processes of photography.
Her friends said she loved everything beautiful; others called her eccentric, though that probably did not trouble the indomitable Mrs C.
A Brief History of the Camerons
The Camerons, Julia Margaret and Charles Hay, moved to Freshwater from London in 1860. Originally two sailors' cottages, these were knocked through to become one building conjoined by this tower. Their new island home was to be named Dimbola Lodge after one of their plantations in Ceylon.
In fact Charles was offered the job as Governor of that island but at the age of seventy his friends thought him too old for such great responsibility. So he purchased these cottages in Freshwater Bay.
Aged 48 Julia launched into her new career. The coalhouse became darkroom, and the glazed fowl-house her studio, the 'glass house' as she called it.
Goodbye to the Camerons
Sadly, Charles' health started to suffer and by 1875 he was a shadow of the great man, bed-ridden and reclusive.
But when his wife asked him if returning to Ceylon would make him feel better, old Charles' eyes twinkled again and to everyone's amazement he slipped out of the bed, dressed himself and then wandered a quarter mile to the sea shore for the first time in twelve years.
It is reported the whole of Freshwater turned out to see Charles and Mrs Cameron leave the island that year.
On the quay side as their luggage was carried aboard ship, she handed out photographic prints in place of cash to tip the porters. 'Take these instead as a remembrance,' said she before the waters of the Solent carried her away to Ceylon where she died on January 26th 1879 at the age of sixty four.
Her last spoken word was "...Beautiful".
Charles outlived her. He died the following year.
The Artist Who Never Left Her Studio
The unusual activity at Dimbola Lodge Museum is subtle, not dramatic. Quiet and atmospheric the activity is linked to artistic intensity and personality imprint. A presence felt rather than seen.
A residual presence or place-memory. Not a poltergeist.
The Paranormal Database classifies this as a “haunting manifestation” tied to the building.
Is the Dimbola activity just a good example of how place, identity and memory create persistent hauntings in folklore? Expectations in a historic setting and the sweet embrace of suggestibility.
Art is Eternal
Mrs Cameron's photographic portraits are inspiring and beautiful. Her skill, determination and respect in which she was held by her subjects produced her fine work, but it was hard and often heart-breaking work.
From two hundred and forty-five exposures only twelve met her high standard for Alfred's epic poem 'Idylls of the King.'
How a Photo Happened circa 1850
Each portrait involved carefully coating the large glass plate, balanced between thumb and forefinger while delicately pouring over the Collodion to coat evenly.
The plate was then immersed in sensitising bath and then eased into the camera. The plate had to be kept wet for exposure.
With this in place, the subject in position, the lens ready for exposure for anything between three and ten minutes, a portrait began.
So long as Charles did not chuckle. Keeping still for ten minutes was often difficult for the sitter even without Charles' interruption and the splendid results of Mrs Cameron's are as much a consequence of endurance as composition. Hers is a magnificent compilation of an age of stars.
Go visit this jewel of the Isle of Wight, sip tea or coffee in its delightful tearooms. Admire the creative genius of this photographic pioneer.
Say "hello" to Dimbola's ghost; for some Freshwater residents believe she somehow returned from Asia and to this day continues her work, unaware of or disinterested in the digital revolution.
