April 15, 2006

3:30 PM

Virginia Woolf the cricketer, the beach belle posing in a stripy bathing suit or as the March Hare at an Alice in Wonderland-themed party.
For the first time, 1,000 photographs from Woolf's private album and that of her sister, Vanessa Bell, have been catalogued and published. More inside. (via litterae)
posted by matteo (27 comments total)

As well as reproducing 200 photographs, a generous and well-chosen selection from the holdings, many of which are unfamiliar, Snapshots of Bloomsbury also prints a meticulous catalogue of Woolf’s photographic collection (Bell’s have already been catalogued by the Tate). The list, which also mentions duplicates and missing prints – taken out for biographies – contains many poignant “unidentified”s and photographs whose significance has not lasted over the years: “Four photographs of a dog on a chair”, “Two views of a Scottish loch”, “Four views: Chartres, Albi, Valençay”. To be lamented, among the negatives “on nitrate film and unreproducible at Harvard”, are two vanished moments in time and place – “T. S. Eliot in shorts in garden” and Vita Sackville-West “on a donkey in Persia”.

posted by matteo at 3:31 PM on April 15, 2006

To borrow from Fark: this thread is useless without pics.
posted by daksya at 3:34 PM on April 15, 2006

There is a massive Bloomsbury archive at the Tate website.

I'm sure the photographs are interesting. Having read Virginia Woolf, I would say Vanessa Bell was by far the greater talent - her portraits are intense.
posted by fire&wings at 3:48 PM on April 15, 2006

I still think she had one of the ugliest, clumsiest, most cack-handed and club-footed writing styles I've ever seen. Her prose runs like a broken wheel.
posted by Decani at 3:48 PM on April 15, 2006

... I like her writing. She wasn't the best of her peers, and boy did she have a big head on her - but she was still an important talent. It's a shame she was so unhappy for most of her life.
posted by Drexen at 5:08 PM on April 15, 2006

I still think she had one of the ugliest, clumsiest, most cack-handed and club-footed writing styles I've ever seen. Her prose runs like a broken wheel.

You're being sarcastic right? It's not without reason that James Wood said she has arguably the most beautiful writing style in 20th century english.
posted by kensanway at 5:21 PM on April 15, 2006

He's not being sarcastic, he's just being wrong. And ridiculous.

That being said . . . the post is pretty disappointing sans a link to the pictures which are the subject of the damn post.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 6:09 PM on April 15, 2006

You gotta be kidding, Decani.
posted by brundlefly at 6:10 PM on April 15, 2006

If we can't see the photographs online, this FPP is fucking useless.

Flagged.
posted by blasdelf at 6:16 PM on April 15, 2006

What a tease.
posted by Marit at 7:26 PM on April 15, 2006

Oh baby!
posted by knave at 7:30 PM on April 15, 2006

If we can't see the photographs online, this FPP is fucking useless.

Heaven forfend that we would need to read any text in a thread about Virginia Woolf! (Why is it that Woolf always seems to make some people so grumpy? I'm baffled by the weird backlash that seems to have grown up around her recently, I think The Waves is one of the most beautifully-written books in the English language.)

Interestingly, Woolf herself wrote an introduction to a book Victorian Photographs of Famous Men & Fair Women. (via)
posted by whir at 8:18 PM on April 15, 2006

Why is it that Woolf always seems to make some people so grumpy?

They're afraid of her.
posted by cortex at 9:12 PM on April 15, 2006

"Meticulously researched and painstakingly organized, this unique book brings critical insight to the uncataloged photographs from the Harvard Theatre collection and the photographs of the Tate archives. In doing so, Snapshots of Bloomsbury makes a major contribution to Woolf scholarship and places domestic photography at the forefront of cultural studies of modernism."

So Humm has access to these photos and makes money from them, even though she doesn't own them. We, on the other hand, would like to view them and have our own personal response. Harvard and Tate won't have it though. I say, scan 'em and post 'em.
posted by sluglicker at 9:30 PM on April 15, 2006

Thanks for the heads up, matteo - this should be an interesting collection of pics. The book is priced reasonably.

These pages have a few Bloomsbury pics 1, 2, 3.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:00 PM on April 15, 2006

One can search the Tate archive for Woolf as well, for those craving pictures, though there only seem to be about three page's worth online.
posted by whir at 11:23 PM on April 15, 2006

I, for one, quite enjoy the works; Of Mrs. Woolf - nee Stephen - and most especially, her, what some might call, overuse: of punctuation.
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 12:48 AM on April 16, 2006

I think Viriginia Woolf is one of the Truly Great Ones.

If you don't think she deserves it as a writer - inconcievable to me but There's No Accounting For Taste - you cannot front on the fact that she committed suicide by weighting herself down with stones in her pocketses and calmly, consciously Wading Into the fucking River.

Think about that for a second - no spasm of angst and sudden decision of a gun or poison. Slowly and methodically wading into the river until you drown. If I can exert that much Will and Intent in my entire life it will be a surprise to me.
posted by freebird at 1:05 AM on April 16, 2006

More Bloomsbury photographs: an online exhibition of images from Leslie Stephen's photograph album, including Virginia playing cricket, Virginia with her parents, and other pictures from her childhood.

Thanks for posting this, matteo -- though, as other people have said, it's disappointing not to have a link to the pictures themselves. Not your fault -- but when will publishers realise that posting a few sample images on the web will actually help to sell books like this?
posted by verstegan at 1:55 AM on April 16, 2006

Hey, the cover of that book is NSFW!!

It would be nice if they'd put a few photos online. Damn publishers, stuck in the 20th century...
posted by languagehat at 6:22 AM on April 16, 2006

If we can't see the photographs online, this FPP is fucking useless.

luckily, not as useless as your comment. not that I'm not fascinated by the FARKers who really think that you can't intelligently discuss something unless you actually link to copyrighted material because, shit, you are too lazy/cheap to actually purchase that book or simply go to a bookstore and check it out there (browsing being, you know, free, but involves getting the hell out of one's apartment so it's kinda against the guidelines).

but then the key word here is, of course, "intelligently"
;)

I guess that reading that tiny text kind of huwts one's eyes.

personally, I think that the Independent's story contains a few gems, I mean, Woolf wearing a 40-years-old dress for a Vogue shoot is really a marvelous, telling anecdote.


Flagged.

as what, "against the guidelines"?
*chuckles*
posted by matteo at 7:07 AM on April 16, 2006

*fap fap fap fap*
posted by Eideteker at 8:16 AM on April 16, 2006

(Not at Virginia; I was talking about the thread.)
posted by Eideteker at 8:17 AM on April 16, 2006

You're being sarcastic right?

No, I really find her style absolutely horrible. Sorry for being "ridiculous" enough to have an opinion which differs from the crowd.
posted by Decani at 9:20 AM on April 16, 2006

Flagged is the new meh.
posted by srboisvert at 12:58 PM on April 16, 2006

Meh is the new eh. I'm not sure I like it, either. "Meh" is kinda eh.
posted by Eideteker at 8:24 PM on April 16, 2006

Thanks for the pics. Really, not very scary at all...
posted by rush at 1:44 PM on April 17, 2006