Francesca Woodman was born in 1958 and was an American photographer best known for her black and white photography featuring herself and also some female models. She moved to new york in 1979 to make a career in photography.
Most of her images are of women and are blurred by the use of movement in her work. This effect creates the blurred outcome to her work, which merges the figure with the surroundings. Woodman's work is still the subject of much criticism and attention, years after she killed herself at the age of 22, by throwing herself out of her NewYork City apartment. Although, such a young photographer she impacted so many with her black and white, haunting photographs, that portray themes of loneliness, disconnection, and absence, simply by disfiguring the models she photographed by the use of blur.
Image Analysis…
Francesca Woodman uses movement in her images to make them appear blurred and also to make the figure unrecognisable. In this image it is faintly clear that the figure is spinning and this creates the almost haunting effect of the blur surrounding her. It is clear that this image wasn't done in the studio. The background is plain and simple which draws the viewer in to the main subject. The fact that the figure is out of focus and the background is in focus makes the image more interesting and different. She makes the figures blurred to obstruct and distort the look of the person and this could subjectively symbolise the way the model looks at herself and how she perceives herself.Descriptively, the figure is spinning causing movement and making the blurred effect. However,in my opinion, this could mean that the person wants to blur her identity and distract people from it. Francesca Woodman, also incorporates themes of death into her work as she ,herself committed suicide. the blurred effect could symbolise the passing of someone and someone who is not completely there to the full extent. As she does a lot of her shoots in abandoned, empty and somewhat derelict spaces, this enhances the ghostly, haunted feel and emphasises the theme of death further.
My responses…
These are my responses following on from Francesca Woodman's work. I chose to do these images self-portrait so I set up my tripod and put the setting on a really slow shutter speed, on self timer. By doing this I could take photos continuously on a slow shutter speed. I chose to wear a long dress which was originally my prom dress to create an eerie and haunting atmosphere to my images. I wanted to incorporate movement into my photos and by having the camera on a really slow shutter speed, it allowed me to move around and my figure would appear blurred whilst the background would be in focus. This left me with blurred, and disfigured images, that gave an odd floating effect to the photographs. I did this shoot in front of a bush which gave a plain background to work with and to not over complicate the shot or distract from the subject. However, developing this further I will do this shoot, but in a wooded area to create more texture to the images. I photo shopped one of the images into black and white as this is how most of Francesca Woodman's images are in black and white. After doing this I think it adds to the haunting effect of the photo and makes the image more enticing to the viewer, as it is different from the classic Portraiture photograph.
Further Developments…
These are my further developments of Francesca Woodman's work. I wanted to create the haunting atmosphere that she portrays throughout her work and so I made these images more blurred so that you can't define any features on the face, which could subjectively symbolise absence and a disconnection with their body or surroundings. To develop this even further I will use more derelict surroundings and backgrounds to continue the eerie feel to these photographs. As Woodman portrays themes of death throughout her images and uses ghost like figures and backgrounds I used a long dress and, as I did these self portrait I used a self timer so that I could change the poses I did to incorporate these themes throughout these photos.
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