Bathing Beauty and Photographer on the beach by Virgil Deane. The print is showing a little age but the image is wonderful!
Vintage Jacksonville recently received a packing box with hundreds of prints of photographs by Beaches photographer Virgil Deane from a Jacksonville resident who saved them from a trip to the dump when they spotted someone carrying the boxes of prints to the curb for the garbage pick up. Deane was a contemporary of Loyd Sandgren and had his studio in Jacksonville Beach where he worked from the early 1940’s through the late 1980’s photographing the major and minor events of life at the beaches while Loyd was working out of his series of downtown Jacksonville studios. They were both friends and there are a number of photographs of Deane in professional and social settings in the Loyd Sandgren collection. The good news is that Deane was very organized with his work and upon his passing in 1999 his collection of negatives and prints were donated to the Beaches Historical Society for their archive. I’ve only glanced at a small portion of the contents of the box I was given but at first glance there is a mix of social events, group photographs, activity at Fletcher High School, pictures of the Jacksonville Beach Seabirds baseball team and scenes around the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club from the 40’s and 50’s. Like the work of Loyd Sandgren, they were documents of everyday life that have become precious historic documents with the passing of time. I don’t yet know what I will be doing with the prints. I promised to give them a good home once I finally see what I have in hand but in the interim I will share some of the work with you on Vintage Jacksonville. Enjoy!
Flyer advertising stock photography for sale by Virgil Deane from December of 1953.
Tags: advertising, bathing beauty, Beaches Historical Society, historic photography, jacksonville beach, photographer, vintage photograph, virgil deane
Hi.. So glad to have this vintage Jacksonville website So we can see the old vintage pictures of Jacksonville Beach and the surrounding areas. A pleasant walk down memory lane.. What is time that must have been to live in….. I always enjoy looking at these pictures on vintage Jacksonville And look forward to seeing many more. Thanks for doing this for everyone!!
Thank You Beth, I love sharing the work and having visitors like you out there lets me know that I’m on the right course. Bob Self/Vintage Jacksonville
Many beaches Fletcher High students were honored to have their photos taken by Mr. Deane, for our year book. I was a 1959 graduate. He always made us look beautiful or handsome!
I was a 77 Terry Parker grad but was honored to have taken my First photography course with Mr. Dean. I shot for 2 yrs. for the school paper at T.P. and then went to study photography at the famous Daytona Beach photography school, I think Mr. Dean even wrote a letter to the program Director so I got enrolled a little earlier.
Great photographer and a wonderful man who is missed in the photographic community.