Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman

Brought up in a family of artists, Francesca Woodman (born in 1958 in Denver, Colorado) took an interest in photography from a very early age and was only thirteen when her first works were made. She soon adopted black and white photography, choosing 21/4 inch square format. As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence between 1975 and 1979, she was accepted into the Honors Program which enabled her to spend a year at the school’s campus in the sumptuous Palazzo Cenci in Rome. During that year (1977-78), Francesca frequented the Maldoror bookshop-gallery, which specialized in art books on Surrealism and Futurism. It was here that her first one-woman show was held. She also met the young generation of the Roman Transavanguardia. After returning to the United States and completing her studies at Providence, Francesca Woodman moved to New York, where she embarked on more ambitious projects, making large blueprints on blue or brown paper as well as designing several books of her own photographs. Some Disordered Interior Geometries, the only one of her books to be published, came out in January 1981, at which date she took her own life.