Theatre combines action, words, characters, concepts, events, and more to fabricate stories with emotion and depth elevated above the spoken word.

Film does the same, but with added dimension.

But what if you cleared away everything but the character and, maybe, the most minor trace of action?

“The corpse of Elaine in the Palace of King Arthur” by Julia Margaret Cameron

I’ve been falling in love with the work of British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron who lived from 1815 to 1879.

Cameron had these ideas that seem ahead of their time, capturing portraits historical and legendary characters.

So like a Shatter’d Column Lay the King’ (The Passing of Arthur),

She certainly took picture of individuals in the real world too.

Charles Darwin

But the point moreso being, there exists in this woman’s innovative work a great depth of storytelling.

Her melancholic characters often exist in a world that, either intentionally or in retrospect as we survey their sepia tint, appears to be passing away before our eyes.

In the assortment of world-weary faces, Cameron seems to express a deep, internal gloom. A network of similar…