The Angel in the House

Virginia Woolf warned that only by “killing the angel in the house” can women be set free to write, to create, to realize our human potential.

She cited an immensely popular Victorian poem that depicted the ideal woman as virtuous, devot- ed to her domestic duties and her husband’s pleasure, and docile despite her misery, loneliness, and abuse. Woolf challenged that definition—and she urged the rest of us to do the same.

Nearly a century after Woolf’s warning, I set out with my camera to see how modern women are faring—in other words, if we’d managed to kill the angel, or at least shoo her out the door. To begin, I swore off the macho, predatory language of photography and pledged that instead of “shooting” or “capturing” my subjects, my subjects would become my “collaborators.”

I called the process: “photo improv.”

Over many cups of coffee, phone calls, emails, and texts, my collaborators and I engaged in deep conversations, often over several months, about our lives. I learned histories through old snap- shots and family lore, and new posts on social media. We talked and traded stories about rela- tionships, power dynamics, worries, dreams, triumphs, and disappointments. I dug into the ways in which they’d arranged their physical spaces, the objects they hold dear, the cluttered book- shelves, the children’s rooms. Slowly the prompt for the picture emerged. Then, working together, we turned their home or garden or rooftop or backyard into a stage, moving set pieces, adding props, selecting wardrobe. My collaborators became actors acting out their own lives. What was revealed was always something none of us could have planned, or scripted. What was revealed was clear: the angel in the house is still very much alive, and she hasn’t much budged.

My journey in this series taught me that Woolf’s warning remains as relevant today as it was in the early 20th century—not such a surprise, especially given how the devastation of the pandemic year highlighted how so many women were left handling everything on the home front. For me, the pictures my collaborators and I created reflect the complexities of this insight; the ways in which our domestic spheres define us, for better and for worse.

The future? That’s a discussion I invite you to join.

–Lanie McNulty, 2021

Photography team: Kylie Wright (post-production and fine art printing), Maria Matthews (editing), Min Jung Kwak and Kwang Min Kim (fine art printing), Aimee Anthony and Sky Frame (framing), Julia Briere (lighting and photo assis- tant), Breanna Cingari-Suden (publicity), Sammy Collinge (photo assistant), Jeri Lampert (post-production), Meagan McEntire (photo assistant), Katie Michel and Planthouse Gallery (exhibition and events), Jesse Morris (gallery assis- tant), and Adela Wagner (photo assistant).

Photobook team: Faride Mereb (design), Deirdre Donohue (foreword), Samoel González (web design), Sophie McNulty (editing), Suzanne Salinetti and The Studley Press (printing), Paul Schorin (editing), and Kate Walbert (interview, editing).