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Thoroughly Modern
Thoroughly Modern
★★★★★
★★★★★
Regular price
€27.50
Regular price
€28.50
Sale
Sale price
€27.50
20th century
A01=Sarah Knights
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
art
artist
Author_Sarah Knights
automatic-update
avant-garde
award-winning
barbara ker-seymer
biography
bloomsbury group
bohemian
bright young things
britain
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=AJ
Category=BGH
Category=BGL
Category=DNBH
Category=DNBL
Category=HBTB
Category=NHTB
cecil beauton
class
COP=United Kingdom
culture
cyril connolly
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
evelyn waugh
feminism
history
intellectuals
jean cocteau
Language_English
london
man ray
margot fonteyn
modernism
music
PA=Available
paul nash
photographer
photography
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
sexuality
softlaunch
surrealism
theatre
virago
vita sackville-west
women
Product details
- ISBN 9780349011516
- Weight: 580g
- Dimensions: 154 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 08 Jun 2023
- Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
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2-4 Working Days: Available in-stock
10-20 Working Days: On Backorder
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The life of pioneering photographer Barbara Ker-Seymer
'Thoroughly entertaining... Knights expertly evokes this hedonistic period' The Times
'A picturesque portrayal of a world that sounds as thoroughly maniacal as it was modern' Daily Telegraph
'I just called myself Ker-Seymer Photographs,' Barbara said. 'I didn't think it was necessary to have your sex displayed on the photographs.'
Vivacious, sassy, out to have fun, Ker-Seymer was committed to independence.
One of a handful of outstanding British photographers of her generation, Ker-Seymer's work defined a talented, forward-looking network of artists, dancers, writers, actors and musicians, all of whom flocked to her Bond Street studio. Among her sitters were Evelyn Waugh, Margot Fonteyn, Cyril Connolly, Jean Cocteau and Vita Sackville-West. Barbara Ker-Seymer (1905-1993) disdained lucrative 'society' portraits in favour of unfussy 'modern' images. Her work was widely admired by her peers, among them, Man Ray and Jean Cocteau. Her images as a gossip-column photojournalist for Harper's Bazaar were the go-to representations of the aristocracy and Bright Young Things at play. Yet as both a studio portraitist and a photojournalist, she broke with convention.
Equally unconventional in her personal life, Ker-Seymer was prefigurative in the way she lived her life as a bisexual woman and in her contempt for racism, misogyny and homophobia. Fiercely independent, for much of her life she rejected the idea of family, preferring her wide set of creative friends, with the artist Edward Burra, ballet dancer William 'Billy' Chappell and choreographer Frederick Ashton at its core.
Today, Ker-Seymer's photographs are known for whom they represent, rather than the face behind the camera, an irony underpinned by the misattribution of some of her most daring images to Cecil Beaton. Yet her intelligence, sparkle, wit and genius enabled her to link arms with the surrealists, the Bloomsbury Group, the Bright Young Things and, most gloriously, the worlds of theatre, cabaret and jazz.
With unprecedented access to private archives and hitherto unseen material, Sarah Knights brings Barbara Ker-Seymer and her brilliant bohemian friends vividly to life.
Sarah Knights' first book, a biography of the novelist David Garnett, was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize and the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize. She lives in North Norfolk.
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