Henry Thoby Prinsep

Henry Thoby Prinsep, husband of Julia Margaret’s younger sister Sara, was pressed into service as a photographic model like many of Cameron’s relatives, friends, neighbors, and household staff. Wrapped in a dark velvet cloak, Prinsep might well be mistaken for an Old Testament prophet or saintly monk. While most professional portrait photographers of the time strove for instantaneous exposures and perfectly recorded detail—“map-making and skeleton rendering of feature and form,” Cameron called it derisively—she aimed to show “the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man.”