Mary McCarter- Weekly Artist Post 1

Francesca Woodman

               Woodman has displayed  technical choices of black and white photos. She uses lines and organic shapes to capture her subjects. She uses a blurring effect to show the figures as ghostly or disappearing. In the first image there is a sort of glow around the woman as well as the flypaper. None of these pictures are close in range, but she uses the space to allow to see other things besides the figures themselves. 
               Woodman seems to be playing with the idea of ghostly imagery or presence within a room. In the first photo the woman hanging flypaper with one of them being more in focus than the woman herself. She is topless making her exposed, with the movement of her hands, it almost makes her angelic in a haunting sort of way. In the second photo the couple shares a chair obviously meant for a single person. Both have there hands on their thighs seemingly looking emotionless.The man is blurred out perhaps making him disappear or fade from the shot itself. This may contribute to the way this woman might feel about this man, or perhaps what she wants to be reality of his blurriness or disappearance. The third is somewhat tough to interpret because though there is only one figure it is more like looking at two figures. The black outline may be an outline of the actual subject herself, or maybe it's just a stain from a previous person. The subject is naked, but she has heels on, her face and upper torso are cut off. This photo may very well be a nod to the oppression of women. The heels, being a very feminine shoe, and her being naked with these shoes makes the photo more sexual. The outline on the floor makes the photo more haunted and dark as if the subject is looking down on her own body or what was her body. 
               I personally really enjoyed these photo. They were rather simple but their meaning can be endless. The fact that I can look at these photos and come up with my own story about what they might mean really intrigues me as an artist myself, as well as just a viewer. Some photos are easily identified and clearly comprised of what the artist is trying to say, however in this case I think Woodman does a really amazing job of leaving a lot to the imagination. In all of these images something is blurred or missing, I find that mysterious and interesting, and it make me curious to see more.