I have always been fascinated by the haunting self portraits of American photographer Francesca Woodman, whose work is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. I have always loved the dreamy, ethereal quality in her work, which explores the female form, using long exposures to blur details; ghostly silhouettes flick across barren rooms.

The knowledge of her premature death in 1981 adds an unsettling undertone to the photographs. After a period of depression, Woodman committed suicide by jumping from the window of her New York apartment at the age of just 22 and there is an undeniable sense of melancholy in the distorted, partially obscurred face of her self portraits.
Despite her tortured soul, she seemed to have such passion and belief in her art, which she began producing when she was just 13. I read somewhere that she was thrown out of the Natural History Museum for photographing herself nude among the animal exhibits! So it seems she was quite a character and it is a great shame that she is not around to tell us more…

The exhibition runs until 20th February 2012.

If you are lucky enough to be in San Francisco, you can go and see Elisabeth Subrin’s oblique portrait of the artist, in her film, The Fancy, on Thursday 26th January or attend a panel discussion about Woodman’s work on Thursday 9th February, 2012.