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Archive for the ‘photography’ Category

Here is news about projects from Woolf scholars around the globe.

Maggie Humm and Snapshots

Maggie Humm’s new book, Snapshots: Autobiography, Virginia Woolf, Writing and the Visual, published by Edinburgh University Press, is now out and receiving much acclaim. Read about it on USA Book DNA and on the EUP blog.

The book provides a survey and analysis of feminist criticism from the 1970s and an historical account of UK women’s writing from 1900 to the present. It also brings together Humm’s pioneering work on feminist literary criticism, Virginia Woolf, film and visual cultures.

Look below for the code to get a 30 percent discount on Snapshots from EUP.

Humm is an emeritus professor and vice-chair of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain whose last book was The Bloomsbury Photographs.

Yolanda Hartshorne and Woolf’s shorter fiction

“A Spatial Reading of Virginia Woolf’s Shorter Fiction” a Ph.D. thesis by Yolanda Hartshorne is now openly accessible online under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND).

In it, she places Woolf’s texts in their non-fictional historical contexts in an effort to understand the societal expectations of the times.

Hartshorne is also the author of “The Business of Marriage in Virginia Woolf’s ‘Phyllis and Rosamond”: Conventional and Transgressive Spaces” and was awarded Distinction Cum Laude from the University of Oviedo, Spain.

Martin Ferguson Smith and two books

Martin Ferguson Smith, professor emeritus of Classics, Durham University and member of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain who is now in his eighties, has two new books out.

  • Urbi et Orbi: The Epicurean Inscription and Prescription of Diogenes of Oinoanda Tab Edizioni, Rome, March 2026, paperback and Open Access
  • Martin the Epicurean (autobiography), SilverWood, Bristol, 15 April 2026, paperback and ebook. For other information, including about the earlier books of the writer’s eighties, In and Out of Bloomsbury (2021; paperback 2023) and The Artist Helen Coombe (2023), visit http://www.martinfergusonsmith.com

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The Virginia Woolf Society of Turkey will host a talk by Maggie Humm titled “The Bloomsbury Photographs” from noon-2 p.m. EST and from 5-7 p.m. BST on Wednesday, June 11.

As the final talk of the society’s Woolf season, Humm will discuss her latest book, The Bloomsbury Photographs (Yale UP, 2024). She will explore the relationships, friendships and stories of the Bloomsbury group, offering a unique visual and historical perspective.

About Humm

Maggie Humm

Humm is an Emeritus Professor University of East London and Vice-Chair of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain. She has written and edited numerous books about Woolf and Bloomsbury, including a novel, Talland House, based on Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.

How to attend

This online event is open to all, but registration at Eventbrite is required. Places are limited.

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Doorway leading from Virginia Woolf’s bedroom to the back garden at Monk’s House. Woolf’s bedroom was part of a two-story extension the Woolfs added in 1930 and could only be accessed from the outside.

Hannah Minton, who describes herself as “a long-time admirer of the VW Blog [Blogging Woolf]” who loves “all the work that your group does to promote Woolf’s image” wrote us to share a photo of Virginia Woolf that she has colorized.

The photo, which comes from the Houghton Library at Harvard University, depicts Woolf at Monk’s House, circa 1933-1935, according to library records. It is one of many black and white images that Minton has colorized as part of her fledgling colorization business.

Minton describes the photo as being taken in Woolf’s “room at Monk’s House,” which I took her to mean it was taken in Woolf’s bedroom, a room that was part of a two-story extension the Woolfs added in 1930 and could only be accessed from the outside.

Virginia Woolf’s bedroom at Monk’s House, showing the fireplace with tiles decorated by her sister, Vanessa Bell.

Investigating location

However, when I took a close look, I did not recognize the fireplace tiles as being those in Woolf’s bedroom, as those tiles feature a lighthouse. (See photo at right.)

So I went to a booklet I picked up at Monk’s House in 2019. Published by the National Trust and titled Virginia Woolf at Monk’s House, it includes the black and white version of the photo Minton colorized and explains that it was taken “in one of the upstairs rooms at Monk’s House, date unknown” (30).

Below, thanks to Minton, we share both the original black and white version, as well as her subtly colorized version. See what you think.

Virginia Woolf seated reading a book at Monk’s House (Rodmell, England) : portrait print, circa 1933-1935., 1933-1935.. Virginia Woolf Monk’s House photographs, MS Thr 564, (60) RESTRICTED, Box: 2. Houghton Library.

Virginia Woolf at Monk’s House, colorized

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I just stumbled across a saved email from two years ago that included a link to a 16-minute YouTube video that provides a photographic timeline of Virginia Woolf’s many looks, from youth to adult, from formal to playful.

The music accompanying the timeline, which I am belatedly sharing, is by Philip Glass, who also composed the music for the 2002 film “The Hours.”

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Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography, a major new exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London, includes Virginia Woolf’s great-aunt, Julia Margaret Cameron.

The exhibit, March 1 – May 20, also features three other celebrated figures in art photography: Lewis Carroll, Oscar Rejlander  and Clementina Hawarden. These four artists would come to embody the very best in photography of the Victorian era, according to the NPG.

Julia Jackson, as photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron

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