Francesca Woodman has become one of the most talked about, most studied and most influential of late twentieth-century photographers. She started taking photographs when she was barely thirteen, and in less than a decade, created a body of work that has now secured her a reputation as one of the most original American artists of the 1970s.
The figure of Woodman herself appears frequently in these exquisitely odd and unsettling photographs. In some of her photographs, her body seems to blend into the surroundings – caught in a state of metamorphosis – she is not quite here, nor quite there. In other images, she uses a variety of props to create strange and dreamlike tableaux, tinted with uncertainty, melancholy, and a sense of ethereal timelessness. Woodman committed suicide at the age of just 22, but in her brief yet extraordinary career, she created an enduring body of photographic work that continues to fascinate and influence today.
Joining us to examine this exhibition of silver gelatin prints is Florence Ingleby and Roberta McGrath. Florence Ingleby is Director of Ingleby Gallery and Roberta McGrath is Associate Lecturer in Photographic Theory and Criticism at Napier University, Edinburgh.
