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Francesca Woodman
American • 1958-1981
Biography
During her brief 22 years, Francesca Woodman created an extraordinary body of work, exploring gender, selfhood and the body in relation to its surroundings. Woodman often experimented with a slow shutter speed, which slightly blurred and distorted her body as it moved throughout the exposure, creating a haunting, almost ghost-like effect. Her ethereal presence draws our attention to traditional depictions of the body, forms of portraiture and self-portraiture, illuminating the desire for self-preservation against the passing of time.
Insights
Francesca Woodman started taking pictures at the age of 13.
While a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Woodman studied photography with Aaron Siskind, whose abstract expressionist images deeply influenced Woodman's own photographs.
"Am I in the picture? Am I getting in or out of it? I could be a ghost, an animal…not just this girl standing on the corner…?"