Francesca Woodman

Photographer

Francesca Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring herself and female models. She spent the most part of her childhood in Italy in the Florentine countryside, where she lived in an old farm with her parents, who were also artists. The charm of the old house had a notable influence on Francesca’s research; the high-ceilinged rooms, the crumbling walls, the old decorations are all felt to be surfaces like ‘skins’ in which to cover oneself. Many of her photographs show young nude women, blurred by camera movement and long exposure times, merging with their surroundings, or with their faces obscured. Her work continues to be the subject of much attention, years after she committed suicide at the age of 22.