I discovered Woodman's work in a photography magazine. Her photos are rarely released into print media. And her popularity seems to find it's epicenter among photographers and serious photographer hobbyists. She is, as one article stated, a photographer's photographer. And all this at a very young age.
One of the main themes in every article written about her work, was her suicide. It is an inescapable fact. Many would like to read suicidal themes inside her work. This based on the Diane Arbus comment that she could see suicide in her photos.
However I don't see that in Woodman's photos. What I see, is a young woman obsessed with a subject that she wanted to capture but was thwarted by the medium and science as well.
Francesca Woodman wanted to capture Time, to show the fourth dimension at work. Photo after photo shows Woodman moving through space, the film set to slow speed to show her movements through time. Her hidden face, so disturbing to many, was to avoid the viewer turning the photo into a subject about herself. She failed at that, because everyone has done exactly that. Her work is wrongly attributed as self portraiture when really they are about spacetime.
Even her stills, that don't showcase movement through time, highlight age (old buildings) juxtaposed with the new (her young self). And since she was an artist through and through, she harks back to the old masters and their symbols of mortality. So included in the photos, are fish scales, flowers, overgrown greenery and animal displays. Chris Townsend's essay, written in the only book published showcasing Woodman's work, highlighted that she even used gothic atmosphere from the 19th century literature that she loved to read. Although it hasn't been mentioned in other articles, I would say Woodman was also familiar with the Japanese Ukiyo-e artists of the Edo period. Their subjects frequently showcased ghostly subjects, something a gothic loving teenager would certainly enjoy. Woodman's long hair, frequently hiding her face, and flowing garments are quoting Edo artists' images of unrestful yūrei.
I feel she was frustrated about being turned into a self portraitist by her contemporaries. She even tried to guide people toward the correct path by labeling her photography book, Some Disordered Interior Geometries. Basically a life captured in time.
Some have written, that had Woodman lived, she would have gravitated toward video. That may be so, but I think it would have further removed the viewer from Woodman's work. In video, she would have been stifled by the film lens' need to turn it's human subjects into idols. And that would not have been good for an artist trying to capture the elusive subject of spacetime.
Labels: art, culture, Francesca Woodman, photography, symbology