Transforming

Francesca Woodman, Self-Portrait at 13, 1972

Today I visited the Victoria Miro Gallery in London (http://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/_413/), to see for the first time the work of Francesca Woodman, who, 30 years ago, January 19, 1981, took her own life.

As someone not very familiar with her work, I was really struck by the print of what is considered to be her first picture.

This picture would be the starting point of her photographic adventure and an exploration, her self- exploration for the years to come and until her death. Her body became the object and subject of her inquiry and as the years passed, perhaps she worked more formally, influenced by her education and interest in Surrealism.

Nevertheless, it was this image that I stood before and studied more, as it brought me back in time, when I was 13. This is the approximate age that notable changes set off for the individual, especially with her/his body and psychology (not to mention the social), bringing both the former and the latter in a state of binary oppositions and contradictions.

Woodman is sitting on a sofa, furniture, which signifies relaxation and a domestic environment. Even so, she is sitting upright, with one arm at ease, while the other is holding a stretched string attached to the camera. This string could suggest the tension she was feeling, while transforming from one Francesca to the Other, which she had yet to meet, understand and come to terms with. Then again, it seems as if she has already started to experiment with her new Reality by wearing oversized clothes.

On the other hand, she is using her hair as a veil to gently cover her face, as she does not want to be ‘recognized’. Although, she has already sensed the arrival of her ‘new’ self, she is still resisting; her gaze is fixed half way back, as she is not prepared yet for this alteration that has already commenced. But most importantly perhaps, she is pulling her own image with a string through the camera to freeze time and maintain a self that she already knows and feels comfortable with…