This issue of Études britanniques contemporaines offers a selection of papers given at the SEAC (Société d’Études Anglaises Contemporaines) ‘Bare Lives: Dispossession and Exposure’ SEAC conference organised by Jean-Michel Ganteau et Christine Reynier at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 on October 21st-22nd, 2016. We would like to express our gratitude to the members of the organising committee. The volume also welcomes a section devoted to Virginia Woolf’s work and entitled ‘Becoming Photographc’. The articles were originally presented in the ‘Virginia Woolf and Images: Becoming Photograhic’ SEW conference hosted by the Université Toulouse Jean-Jaurès and organised by Adèle Cassigneul in association with Christine Reynier