Francesca Woodman, Untitled, from Eel Series, Venice, Italy 1978. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. © Woodman Family Foundation / Artist’s Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London.
10 rooms in In the Studio
These works combine photography and performance to explore hidden parts of the self
Francesca Woodman was surrounded by art from a young age – her father was a painter and her mother a ceramicist. When she was 13 years old, Woodman’s father gave her the camera that she used to create her first works. She developed her artistic practice while at Rhode Island School of Design, during her year studying in Rome, and later in New York.
Woodman’s archive includes more than 800 black-and-white photographic prints, many of which are self-portraits. Each image is a carefully choreographed performance for the camera. Woodman regularly staged her work in empty studio spaces and abandoned buildings. She used furniture, wallpaper, shadows and her body to conceal as much as she revealed. Her work invites us to consider how we see ourselves and how we are perceived by others. Woodman wrote: ‘I show you what you do not see – the body’s inner force. You cannot see me from where I look at myself.’