Francesca Woodman American, 1958-1981

Francesca Woodman (b.1958-1981) was born in Denver, Colorado and was raised in an environment where artmaking was a part of her everyday life. Both of her parents were artists. Her father, George Woodman, was a painter and photographer and her mother, Betty Woodman, was a ceramicist and sculptor. Artists including Richard Serra and David Hockney often visited the Woodman’s home. Francesca Woodman found inspiration in European culture and art, specifically in the works of Man Ray and Claude Cahun, whose influence can be seen in themes and styles present in her work.

Woodman often photographed herself, nude, in empty and eerie interiors. Her photographs are not traditional self-portraits as she is usually hiding between objects and furniture or rendered as a blur in motion. Her images convey a sense of human fragility which is exaggerated by the fact that these photographs are small in scale.

Francesca suffered from depression following her move to New York in 1979 and in 1981, she tragically took her own life at the age of twenty-two. In her work, Woodman continuously explored and tested the medium of photography, challenging the idea that the camera fixes time and space, she manipulated light, movement, and photographic effects, used carefully selected props, vintage clothing, and decaying interiors to add a sense of enigma and atmosphere to her work.

Francesca Woodman’s work was incredibly influential in the 1970s and her experiments with identity and the female body paved the way for artists like Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin.