Francesca WoodmanUntitled 1975-80

The bodies of the two naked women in this photograph are cropped and decentred; Woodman treats them with no more importance than the scattered objects that surround them. Here Woodman uses a mirror as a prop – it becomes a symbol of artistic self-reflexivity, reflecting the ‘eye’ of the camera back upon itself. Her photographs explore issues of gender and self, looking at the representation of the body in relation to its surroundings. They are not conventional portraits, since figures are either partially hidden or concealed by slow exposures that blur them into surreal, ghostly forms. This underlying fragility is emphasised by the small and intimate format of the photographs.