The Body of Francesca Woodman

The Finnish Museum of Photography of Helsinki currently shows intimate and surrealistic images by photographic artist Francesca Woodman. The show continues until October 15, 2017.

The American photographer Francesca Woodman (1958–1981) created a world of intimate and emotional pictures during her intensive life – prior to her death at only 22. The exhibition On Being an Angel presents an artist and a cult classic, known especially for her portraits in which bodies and faces are often partly hidden or merge into their surroundings. Woodman’s works have inspired artists, art historians and exhibition visitors all over the world, fascinated by her photographic explorations of gender, representation, sexuality and body. Woodman used herself and her friends as models.

“Throughout her career, Woodman revisited the theme of angels. In On Being an Angel (1976) she is seen bending backward as light falls on her white body. The following year she made a new version, an image with a darker mood in which she shows her face. These angels are but a few examples of Francesca Woodman’s practice of staging her body and her face”, the curator of the exhibition, Anna Tellgren from Moderna Museet, Stockholm, explains.

The exhibition is comprised of 102 photographs and six short films by Francesca Woodman, representing key thematic groups and series of her works.

Please find more information at The Finnish Museum of Photography