THIS WEEK’S MUSE
FRANCESCA WOODMAN
“You cannot see me from where I look at myself.”
Francesca Woodman was an American photographer whose carefully composed black and white images had more in common the pioneering days of the artform than with the contemporary movements through which she lived.
Woodman was born in 1958 into an artistic family – father was a painter and lecturer at the University of Boulder, her mother a ceramicist and sculptor. She grew up in Denver, Colorado but her interest in photography began at Abbot Academy, a private boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts.
When the family holidayed near Florence, she would use the shabby rooms of a former dry goods store, abandoned houses and other rundown spaces as her studio. The style that would come to characterize her work, can be seen in images taken in these derelict spaces. She developed her photographic style further at Rhode Island School of Design, and in 1979 she moved to New York City to “make a career in photography.”
Ethereal, haunting, personal, private, intimate. Words often used to describe her images. Her style and technical approach shared a lot with pioneers of photography such as Man Ray, Claude Cahun, and Lee Miller, while her careful staging and framing filled her images with a painterly quality. These were not quick moments caught in time, they were whole stories into which the viewer was invited to step.
Woodman is almost always physically present in her photographs but never quite visible or ‘fixed.’ These are not self-portraits in any typical sense, but moments of exploration into a secret world that today remains ambiguous. Some say she was exploring gender roles, sexuality, or challenging social norms, others focus on her technique or talk of how she referenced art history through composition. She was a little more pragmatic. “It’s a matter of convenience,” she said. “I am always available.”
She often presents herself as out of focus or partially obscured in the photograph or by the image edge. So, while the emphasis is on her as a living, breathing person within a nonliving setting, there is a contradiction since she is also deliberately hiding herself in the same moment. She simultaneously wants to be seen and not seen. The resulting tension in the images presents the viewer with a dilemma – what is the artist saying? Like the images, the answer is obscured, leaving the viewer to decide for themselves. And in a sense, completing the work.
Woodman died in 1981 in New York City. Beyond some “exhibitions in alternative spaces,” Woodman didn’t exhibit in her lifetime though her work has been shown often since her death. Her premature death has robbed the art world of getting to know her work, but the 800 or so images that exist give us a strong notion of what she might have become, had she lived.
“Real things don’t frighten me just the ones in my mind do.”
HAPPENING
Wednesday, August 17, pick-up from 4:30–5:30pm
Gourmet Take-Out – Cool Summer Dinner!
With Chef Joe Cizynski
Delicious Vichyssoise, served with sliced buckwheat crepes.
Order by noon, Tuesday, August 16.
$40 – Member, $45 – Non-Member
