Fancesca Woodman was a very interesting artist who accomplished quite a bit before her young, unfortunate death. Her black and white images are very powerful and seem to have a lot of meaning and depth behind them. As I researched her further, I learned more and more about her history, and how sad her suicide was. Many people claim it was due to her lack of success as an artist, yet her art has seemed to reach quite far after her death. An article in NYbooks (http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/01/24/long-exposure-francesca-woodman/) mentions how unlike sports, music, math etc., art does not really have prodigies. You learn as you evolve and learn from all your past works. However, they said a major exception to that was Francesca, who did most of her great work as a student. It makes you wonder what she could of achieved if she had lived longer.
The article went on to mention the effect of her keeping a the shutter open longer and how that changes an image. As someone who does not know much about about photography, it was interesting to learn about how the longer shutter speed caused her to spend hours taking a single photo. With the increased shutter, she gets the effect of transparent and ghost like bodies, which is really appealing and powerful to have in her works.
This image is one of my favorites that she did. I really enjoy how she seems to be taken in by the tree, maybe to symbolize becoming one with nature or going back to her roots. It is also interesting how her hair in the water seems like an extension of the roots of the tree. This picture seems like it was taken with the shutter open for a shorter amount of time than her other photos, and it’s really interesting that I can notice certain aspects of photography that I couldn’t before I learned about Francesca Woodman
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