Dimensions: image: 152 x 152 mm
Copyright: © Courtesy of George and Betty Woodman | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Francesca Woodman’s self-titled, undated gelatin silver print, held within the Tate Collections, presents a striking composition. What are your immediate impressions? Editor: It feels like a stage set. A woman is caught between the stark vertical lines of an open piano and a bright window—almost pressed between music and light. Curator: The photograph's square format and grayscale palette reinforce this tension. Note how Woodman employs the architecture to frame herself, creating a layered visual space. Editor: It is a bit claustrophobic, isn't it? As if the piano and the walls are closing in. Curator: The stark contrast certainly amplifies this effect, inviting discourse on the artist’s thematic exploration of confinement, both physical and psychological. Editor: Yes, and how she uses her own body as a prop to express that. Curator: A powerful intersection of form and feeling. Editor: A perfect, haunting melody in black and white.
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The subject of this portrait was Woodman’s boyfriend, Benjamin P Moore, who once owned the photographs in the ARTIST ROOMS Collection. Woodman met Moore while a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, and he now has an established reputation as a glass designer in America. He can also be seen, alongside Woodman, in the photograph Untitled, Rome, Italy 1977–8. Woodman’s photographs explore issues of gender and self, looking at the representation of the body in relation to its surroundings. These are not conventional portraits, as her sitters appear partially hidden or concealed by slow exposures that blur them into a surreal, ghostly presence. This underlying fragility is emphasised by the small and intimate format of the photographs. Gallery label, May 2019
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