Francesca Woodman United States, 1958-1981

Francesca Woodman (1958 - 1981) was an American photographer, best known for her black and white pictures, usually staging herself or other female subjects. She is widely celebrated as a photographer, despite taking her own life at the young age of 22. She approached photography when she was a teenager, while traveling between her home country and Italy, where the family had a property. She completed her studies at the Rhode Island School of Design but also studied in Rome attending honours programmes. Being fluent in Italian, she was able to establish a connection and build relationships with local artists and notable people. She spent the last few years of her life in New York and committed suicide in January 1981.

She was firstly noticed and exhibited briefly in Italy in local galleries, but her production intensified when she moved to New York, where she produced her most famous pictures and photography books. During her short life she was able to produce thousands of negatives, usually in square format, that lead to small, printed photographs. The small size of these pictures emphasises the intimacy of the image, establishing a close and personal bond with the viewer. Only a few of these images are lifetime prints, but Woodman’s parents have retained all the negatives to perpetuate their daughter’s memory. Despite the short career, Woodman paved the way for other female photographers such as Nan Goldin and Cindy Sherman.

Woodman portrayed herself in most of her pictures, sometimes including friends and her boyfriend Benjamin: faces and bodies are often blurry and out of focus, an effect given by the long exposure time she used. The results are images close to those by Surrealist artists, to which she has been related to. These images have been associated with the notion of metamorphosis: her body can interact with the surroundings, transformed into new shapes similar to angels and birds, or reflected in mirrors and liberated from her human form.

The present photograph is a rare lifetime print by Francesca Woodman. With the black and white pictures of Cindy Sherman, Zanele Muholi and Shirin Neshat, it constitutes a group of works related to the investigation of the female body, distant from modern standards and stereotypes. It further establishes a seamless connection with Surrealist works in the collection, such as Man Ray.