Francesca Woodman- an artist study

Francesca Woodman is consistently one of the most important artists to have influenced my work and to have helped me understand and explore myself through photography. Woodman’s career was brief- having committed suicide at 22, a fact which I believe is crucial to understanding her work.

            Woodman’s photographs deal with ideas of femininity and the self, alongside loneliness and inner turmoil. Of course, it would be ignorant to think that her work is entirely transparent and “readable”- but to me, the mystery only adds to the beauty.

Francesca Woodman: House #3, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976

One of the key aspects of Woodman’s images is the way in which she finds beauty in unexpected places- namely, abandoned buildings, dusty and forgotten, broken and unwanted. Within these unremarkable buildings, she creates the remarkable- simply by placing a figure there. And yet, the figure isn’t as “present” as its surroundings.

This doesn’t, however, make it any less important or relevant. The addition of this figure- a suggestion of human life in a place that has been abandoned- creates a kind of mystery and magic, creating an overall feeling of solemnity. The figure in the images is alone, and the movement of the body shows life alongside fragility, a fleeting moment, rendering the body not entirely there.

Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Boulder, Colorado, 1972–1975

The images never give you a definitive answer, and to me this makes them all the more alluring. Woodman presents the female as a mysterious creature, somehow more than human, something fragile yet solitary.  The use of the female form creates softness, something almost comforting and familiar in the images- and yet rarely, if ever, do we see a face. The creatures we see don’t have an identity, and yet are presented as vulnerable- shown mainly nude, a vulnerable state, and in a lonely solitary place, which looks as though it may collapse at any moment.

In this, however, there is a kind of strength. The figures we see may be alone, naked, and inhabiting abandoned houses- yet they are still alive. They still exist, and are presented as something quite beautiful in Woodman’s images.

      Francesca Woodman: Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976

A beautiful quality to Woodman’s work- indeed, one of my favorite aspects about it, is the way she captures on film occurrences that are non-existent in true life. By using a slow shutter speed, Woodman captures movement- the figures in her images becoming fluid and ghostly, a feat unachievable to the human eye. She creates the unreal within the real.

Francesca Woodman: From Angel series, Rome, 1977

I think the understanding of Woodman’s work becomes clearer with time- by taking the time to look through her portfolio, and by asking the questions that will inevitably remain unanswered, you find yourself within the images- embraced in the mystery that her photographs create. That is the beauty of Woodman’s work; there will never be a definitive answer the questions it raises. Indeed, I believe that even if she were still alive today, the questions would remain unanswered.