Culture Club

Francesca Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring herself and female models. Many of her photographs show young women who are nude, blurred (due to movement and long exposure times), merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured. Her work continues to be the subject of much critical acclaim and attention, years after she killed herself at the age of 22.

Photographs, 1972–1980[edit]

Although Woodman used different cameras and film formats during her career, most of her photographs were taken with medium format cameras producing 2-1/4 by 2-1/4 inch (5.7 by 5.7 cm) square negatives.[4](p. 9)[5](p. 179) Woodman created at least 10,000 negatives, which her parents now keep.[13]

Videos, 1975–1978[edit]

At RISD, Woodman borrowed a video camera and VTR[4](p. 27) and created videotapes related to her photographs in which she "methodically whitewashes her own naked body, for instance, or compares her torso to images of classical statuary."[28] Some of these videos were displayed at the Helsinki City Art Museum in Finland and the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York in 2004;[29] the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami in 2005;[28] the Tate Modern in London in 2007–2008;[30] and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2011 (in an exhibition which will travel to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2012).[5] In the 2011–2012 exhibitions, the selected video works, each 23 seconds to 3 minutes 15 seconds in length, were entitled "'Francesca' x 2," "Sculpture," "Corner," "Trace," and "Mask."[31]

Some Disordered Interior Geometries (1981 book)[edit]

Woodman created a number of artist's books, such as Portrait of a Reputation, Quaderno dei Dettati e dei Temi (Notebook of Dictations and Compositions), Quaderno (also known as Quaderno Raffaello), Portraits Friends Equasions, and Angels, Calendar Notebook.[4][21][32] However, the only artist's book containing Woodman's photographs that was published during her lifetime was Some Disordered Interior Geometries.[33]