I cannot deny that Francesca Woodmans' photographs have cracked me round the head on numerous occasions. Two painkillers and a good nights sleep later, I have always returned, intrigued and alarmed by whats' in front of me. That's not to say I have this experience every time, quite the opposite. Every moment with her photographs tell me something new, something I never saw previously and indeed, something I can never forget.
Margaret Sundell (in Vanishing Points: The Photography of Francesca Woodman) describes her images that "seek out and surpass the borders between subject and object, self and environment, and in sensibility they reveal a moment hovering between adolescence and adulthood..."
This particular image haunts me like no other.
1 comment:
Blimey, quite a dramatic image. I think it's further dramatised by the fact that it is in black and white. Black and white always has that mysterious quality because it takes the world of colour away and to me is a reminder of past events, black and white typically being a characteristic of early photographs. I think has well black and white (or greyscale?) photographs have more a a relationship with text as most writings are 'black marks on a white background' I forget where that quote comes from so when I get back to uni on Mon will check to see who said it and let you know. Anyway. The image - the empty seat to me suggests lonliness, made for someone to ocupy but left haphazardly in the middle of the room. The floor is really strange as well. Im not very good with decor but that type of tiling - would that not be found more in kitchens? - I have looked at the scene as though it was set in a living room because there is no ref to anything else like a kettle, bed etc. Also the floor is similar to the pattern found on a chess board. An 'intellectual game' - (never understood how to play!) but a game anyway. unable to see further then in the boundaries of the photograph I guess that means we focus on the hanging lady from the door frame. Her arms twisted backward, neck awkwardly twisted to her left - reminiscent of christ on a cross with her feet directly dangling downwards together. A biblical reference to death I guess. She looks like she may be in a nighty - perhaps it is morning or night - but there seems to be a neautral light so maybe it's daytime. On a second glance I have come to view her as a patient in an institution perhaps? The door behind suggests an opening to another room. Or perhaps it's locked so that she is confined and the room is her jail. A door is something that opens and closes, possibly connoting freedom or entrapment?
If i were to name it, I would call it 'No exit'.
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