Paving the way for the application of the algebraic diagrammatic construction scheme of second-order (ADC(2)) to systems based on the guanine chromophore, we demonstrate the this excited-state electronic structure method provides a realistic description of the photochemistry of 9H-guanine, in close agreement with the benchmark provided by the CASPT2 method. We then proceed to apply the ADC(2) method to the photochemistry of 8-vinylguanine (8vG), a minimally modified analogue of guanine which, unlike the naturally occurring nucleobase, displays intense fluorescence, indicative of a much longer-lived excited electronic state. The emissive electronic state of 8vG is identified as an pi pi*-type intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state, in which a charge of roughly -0.2 e is transferred from the guanine moiety onto the vinyl substituent. The main radiationless deactivation pathway competing with fluorescence is predicted to involve the molecule leaving the minimum on the ICT pi pi* state, and reaching a region of the S-1 adiabatic state where it resembles the L-a pi pi* state of unmodified 9H-guanine. The topology of the L-a pi pi* region of the S-1 state favors subsequent internal conversion at a crossing seam with the ground electronic state. The sensitivity of this process to environment polarity may explain the experimentally observed fluorescence quenching of 8vG upon incorporation in single- and double-stranded DNA.