Untitled [Girl Lying on a Bed] 1972 - 1976

This photograph, "Untitled [Girl Lying on a Bed]," was made by Joan Cassis sometime before 1996, the year she died. Cassis was working with shades of gray, from light to dark, to create this intimate scene, and I get the feeling that she was trying to capture something fleeting and almost ghostly. I can imagine Joan Cassis, camera in hand, waiting for the right moment, the light filtering through the curtains just so, to capture this figure. What was she thinking as she pressed the shutter? Was she interested in how a bed becomes a stage for the drama of everyday life? The figure on the bed is blurred; they are both there and not there. The soft fabric of the curtains and the stark lines of the metal frame – there’s a push and pull between the domestic and something much more mysterious. Artists are always riffing off each other; Joan Cassis's work reminds me of Francesca Woodman, another photographer who died young. Both explored themes of identity, the body, and the self in their work. And like so many artists, both invite us to see the world through a new, and often haunting, lens.