Becoming: The Photographs of Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden (review)

Abstract

In 1995, Carol Mavor published Pleasures Taken: Performances of Sexuality and Loss in Victorian Photographs. Her new book, Becoming: The Photographs of Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden, is a study of a little-known female pioneer of British photography who lived from 1822 to 1865. In turning to these images, Mavor builds on her earlier work and considers issues of Victorian motherhood, homosexuality, and perversion, as well as photography. Becoming is well illustrated with many of Viscountess Hawarden's photographs of her family and other adolescents and contains autobiographical material about the author herself.