Eliot Porter-

Eliot Porter was an American photographer working throughout the 50s to the 70s, known for his brightly coloured nature photography. His work was key to bringing about the change to viewing colour photography as a fine art medium and he often used his artwork to further conservation efforts and raise awareness on the subject, which he was very passionate about. He has published several critically-acclaimed photography books following his very extensive travels all over the world, including the Americas, East Africa, Antarctica and even the Galapagos Islands, the first being “In Wildness Is The Preservation Of The World”. He died on the 2nd November 1990, but his legacy lives on in his many vibrant photographs of culturally and ecologically important areas of the planet.

“When Porter captured the world around him, he often wanted to highlight elements the average person would overlook. He would look for specific plants, colours or textures that symbolised something far greater about the landscape he was shooting.”

-Urth Magazine

ARTIST EXAMPLES-

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His images all seem to feature a range of interesting textures which transports the viewer to the location and immerses them in the environment. This was especially effective to Porter’s conservation awareness efforts, and he even produced an entire book with the sole intention of raising public awareness on the importance of natural environments; “The Place No One Knew: Glen Canyon on the Colorado” presented the canyon’s stunning beauty before it was deliberately flooded in 1963, and was published shortly after the flood.

“Every photograph that is made whether by one who considers himself a professional, or by the tourist who points his snapshot camera and pushes a button, is a response to the exterior world,”

-Eliot Porter

MORE ARTIST EXAMPLES-

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One of his photography books in particular inspires me, “Intimate Landscapes” (1979), which consists of 10 prints handpicked from Porter’s show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the time. He was using colour photography at a time when most other artists ridiculed the medium as an artform. Their belief was that colour film simply could not convey the same emotional effect as black and white images., however Porter’s images have been critiqued by experts as emotive and, as the title suggests, quite intimate. Porter was inspired by the natural world around him and his efforts to help preserve it were fueled by this appreciation and adoration of all the fragile beauty he saw, all of which is expressed in his photography.

IMAGE ANALYSIS-

LINKS-

http://www.artnet.com/artists/eliot-porter/

https://mygobe.com/magazine/eliot-porter-photography/

“the transition season between winter and summer during which we see days getting longer, temperatures warming and plants blossoming in time for summer.”

– Met office definition of spring

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When given the choice between the theme of “transition” or “freedom/limitations”, I chose “transition” as I felt it was the best way to express different styles and concepts of photography than the previous project, which overlapped the themes of “freedom/limitations”, so as to develop my skills and knowledge further.

I decided to create a photobook for this final exam project as my previous project was a film and I felt it would be better to broaden my field and attempt another method of presenting a photographic series. Additionally, the medium of still images presents different challenges and advantages than moving images, which I’m going to pursue.

PHOTOBOOK STRUCTURE IDEAS:

• use of opposing imagery to reflect transition from winter -> summer/ death -> life
• following the process of growth from seed to grown plant
• seasonal changes in the environment, i.e. weather
• close-ups of signs of human aging and youth
• juxtapositions: natural images with human ones, similar close-ups and patterns, opposing landscapes

This process had to start with a careful run-through of the finished film in Premiere Pro and, using the frame capture tool, I selected roughly 30 individual frames that I felt worked well not only as single images but also with each other.

I then imported them into Lightroom in order to continue with the selection process and later the editing process. The first move was to go through using the Colour Label tool and rate them all either red, yellow or green.

Then I went through and filtered out all the “red” and “yellow” ones which didn’t work out or were near-duplicates of other images/frames. After I re-evaluated my chosen images and removed any that didn’t particularly fit in well with the others.

Next, I organised them around, experimenting until I came up with two different layouts, with different concepts but both utilising the chronology of the film and with varying image sizes. Because I’m using an odd number of images (9) they both are more oriented circularly, but the differences are that while the second is central to a single image, the first version revolves around a chronological group of three images, with the remaining ones grouped around them in groups of which are most aesthetically pleasing together.

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After careful consideration, I am choosing to use version 1 for my final print layout, because I think it has a more interesting organisation and spacing and the images are more varied in terms of sizes. It also follows the theme of pairings of threes that I used in the actual film, so it stays close to the source material and my original ideas.

PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE + OPINIONS-

This project had some personal significance and although certain scenes were quite difficult for me to film, mentally, I believe that all in all it helped with my own recovery and I’m glad I went through with the film. I think it reflects not only some of my own story but also, more generally, it symbolises a range of experiences and feelings that people have when they are going through periods of poor mental health, not only struggles with diet.

I explored the link to the “Love and Rebellion” theme through the idea of self-love and rebellion against a toxic mindset and societal expectations. In my opinion, it was successful, although I feel as though I could maybe have focused more on the self-love aspect in the end, but as a result of the importance of the three separate chapters, I wasn’t able to spend too much time on only a single one.

CLOTHING/LOCATION-

Both the clothing and the locations were very important to me. I chose to have three different outfits: one for each chapter. Seeing as each chapter represented a different stage of the ED journey, I thought the clothing should reflect the general mental situation at the time. The first was a long sleeved shirt and a long skirt which covered up most of my body but was still fairly close to my skin, illustrating the sense of self-consciousness building before the actual disorder changes the perception of the body too much. The second outfit was a plain white long-sleeved dress, which fell a little baggy on my body and covered up pretty much all of it, showing how self-consciousness increases and the desire to hide yourself/your body in your clothing is also very prominent. In the third chapter I wore a white cropped top and the same white skirt from the first chapter to show how I was returning to my former self but changed, recovered and showing more outward self-confidence. All three of the outfits were white, for a few different reasons: white symbolises innocence and purity which can be reflected in both the first and last chapters, white stands out against the otherwise natural colour palatte of the background, therefore drawing focus towards me as the central focus of the film, and white also links to the voiceover which features the “white rabbit” from the Alice in Wonderland books.

The locations I filmed in were also significant. Most of it is filmed in and around my house, which references how EDs often stem from issues at home and revolve around routines and habits done at home. This is similar to the way the Laia Abril’s book “The Epilogue” revolves around the house of a young girl who suffered from an eating disorder. The rest is filmed in a patch of nearby woods, which at the same time references Alice in Wonderland and the popular metaphor of “going into the woods” as meaning going on a dangerous and challenging quest with reasonable doubt as to whether one would return safe. It also meant that I was able to work in an environment that was quite colourful, and the time of year meant that the green was quite vibrant, and the weather was often rainy which added general atmosphere and mood to the film.

SEQUENCING/CHAPTERS-

The chapters were a vital aspect of the film to me; they showed the journey one goes on with an eating disorder in three separate stages. The titles reference the Alice in Wonderland books and mark the stages of before, during and after. When evaluating, I think they worked effectively in portraying the sense of the passing of time that I wanted them to.

I also use some repeated shots, like the “getting ready” morning scene and the close up of eyes opening and looking around. I intended this to give the audience a sense of how the subject’s mental health changes over time, relying on the artistic trope of the eyes being “windows to the soul” to portray this.

Sequencing the shots and generally organising the narrative was an aspect I put quite a bit of thought into, and I ended up making a fairly detailed storyboard which I then annotated with details for me to use when actually shooting; I found this really helpful throughout the whole process, especially when editing. It was quite effective in that, when re-evaluating some shots later on in the process, I was able to cut them out easily and maintain the whole narrative of the rest of the film without missing out on anything important. In my opinion, it was definitely worth the extra time spent in the planning process.

VOICEOVER-

From the very beginning, I had planned to record myself doing a scripted voiceover, with the visuals matching up to whatever was being said at the moment. I debated either reading out a poem from the book “Alice Through The Looking Glass” or to write something myself, and in the end the poem in particular was too short and didn’t link up with the subject matter of the film enough, so I wrote a short three-piece text, making sure to include imagery that fit with the theme of eating disorders and Alice in Wonderland, then went through the process of editing it to the right length and omitting any parts that didn’t particularly work out in the way I liked. Certain key lines and phrases, however, were important to keep in as they gave sense to the visuals and added to the overall tone of the film.

For example:

“Little white lies stick like cotton wool in my throat and nothing is the same anymore.” 

The white lies refer to the deception involved in hiding an ED from friends and family, and the cotton wool refers to a popular method of appetite suppressing by consuming cotton wool.

“I got stuck and I got hurt/ And I got help”

This is from the third and final chapter and it shows the period of self-reflection that is necessary for recovery where often things that were complicated at the time become simple and much clearer to understand.

“My childhood seems a blur to me/ Although I don’t really know why” … “My childhood is still blurry, but it’s soft and sweet and sad, and I tell it to take its time coming back to me”

These two quotes are from chapters one and three respectively, and they illustrate how much personal growth occurs during recovery and how often there is an increased sense of acceptance of past pain and upsets, rather than holding on to them and hurting oneself any further.

Overall, the extra effort involved in scripting, recording and editing in a voiceover was most definitely worth it, in my opinion, and I am pleased with the final effect it had. It added a personal touch to the film and made a lot of the imagery clearer to understand, as well as adding more depth to other parts. It also allowed me to explore a different side of the creative aspect when making films, and increased my awareness of the importance of audio and soundscapes.

OVERALL SUCCESSES + CRITIQUES–

Technically, I think my film was fairly successful. Visually it looked good, as the colours I wore stood out against the various surroundings, and the exposure was properly calibrated. As a whole the narrative was clear, conveyed through both visual and audio aspects together. It had a range of close ups and long shots, and the establishing shots at the beginning set the scene effectively. The editing was also varied enough to keep it engaging, switching between several fast-paced montages and some slower, longer scenes. I mainly used a tripod to keep the camera steady which tested my multitasking skills and improved my overall filming/directing techniques, as well as allowing me to use myself as the main subject.

If I had to critique any part of it, I would probably say that I could have spent a bit more time during the actual filming part in making sure that everything was in focus. This was only really an issue in the first parts that I shot, the close-ups particularly, and even though it was hard to be behind the camera while also being the subject of the camera lens, I feel as though if I were to do it again I would know to spend a lot more time on things like this and end up with a slightly better result. Another thing I would change if I did this project again would be to include more scenes of a more abstract nature, like the photography of Francesca Woodman, which would be open for interpretation in various different ways and provide a more creative and artistic demonstration of the main subject’s mental state.

To conclude, I’m pleased with the way this short film project turned out and I believe I was successful in the various things I meant to include. The artists I studied beforehand were very useful in developing my ideas and the style that I went for, as well as providing examples of work covering similar sorts of subjects. I feel like I managed to incorporate a personal aspect in tackling a difficult and fairly emotionally challenging topic, and I put a lot of effort into making sure that I provided as accurate of a representation to my own experiences as I could, without making it overly specific and opening it up to a more general interpretation of mental health issues, the concept of losing childhood nostalgia, rediscovering one’s own identity, and just generally growing up.

Sound was very important to me in this film project, and I spent a lot of time scripting a voiceover to have underneath the video, to combine both the audio and visual aspects together. But I also wanted to use a lot of natural sounds, the sort of ambient noise that would be present in the outside environments I filmed in. Initially I believed this would be best done by using sounds downloaded online, but I tested out my camera’s audio and found it worked well in capturing exactly what I wanted. This accounts for the most part of the ambient background noise, excepting the hospital sounds at the end of “chapter two”, which I had to source online.

BACKGROUND/AMBIENT SOUNDS-

Above I am splicing the original clip from inside a hospital room I got online into separate shorter pieces, as it had a recurring background sound (like an aggressively loud beep) that I didn’t like, so I marked out all the sections it was heard and cut them out. I was anxious that the end product didn’t sound too jarring or mix-and-match, but luckily it worked perfectly well first time, and I only had to cut the whole clip to the right length and no further editing was necessary.

This was the last shoot I did to get footage for my film, as I only had a few key scenes left and they only featured two key scenes: the woods and my house.

THE WOODS-

Because the location wasn’t one where I could just go back and re-film easily, I chose to film every clip several times to avoid having to skip a possible key shot because it came out blurry or the framing or timing was wrong. This meant that I had to have more of an in-depth selection process and analyse which clip would work the best and which was technically the best as well. To visualise this easily, I used the Colour Label tool in Lightroom before editing the selected final clips to be more vibrant and colourful, representing the joy and freedom in this final chapter.

These clips had to be in a specific order which followed the physical journey through the woods up onto the hill, which I had planned out before, so I made sure to double check that all the clips were used in the right place. I ended up cropping, zooming in and re-framing a clip showing some trees moving in the wind and adding the newer version in-between two later clips to create a sort of transition between them. This was purely experimental and I wasn’t expecting to keep it like that, but in the end I liked the changes and thought it made the whole final scene more cohesive and consistent.

It was at this point that I decided to render my film so far. Rendering is a process that allows the timeline of video clips to run smoothly as all the data is fully processed into the computer. This took a little time due to the amount of footage I have, but it helps me to appreciate what I have so far and see any possible issues that could arise in the future.

AT HOME-

I carried on using the same technique as I have done from the beginning, taking multiple videos of the same shot so as to be able to select the best one. After going through the selection process in Lightroom, I ended up with the final six clips that I needed. I had a couple more shots planned on my planning sheet, but after some consideration I decided not to include them because I didn’t feel comfortable filming them and I also thought they weren’t really all too relevant to the film as a whole and so were possible to cut from the final version.

Throughout this whole process I’ve been doing essentially the exact same editing techniques, to keep the same style from the start to the end of the film. I just needed to make a few minor colour corrections and exposure/contrast adjustments, and my select final videos were ready to be exported out of Lightroom and into the film project.

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For these two sections, I had to splice a longer video into smaller clips at certain intervals and with the second video, in the bathroom, I even had to switch around the clips into a different order that flowed aesthetically as its own smaller narrative. This wasn’t too difficult for me because it just relied on the skills I’d acquired from doing the rest of the film, and I enjoyed the experimentation aspect of trying different orders of the clips and seeing the effects they gave.

The last stage of the visual aspect of the film was to run through the film as a whole and close up any gaps that were left from scenes that ended up being cut, and to double check that all the clips were in the right order and switched at the right time. After this, I was able to move on to the final stage: recording and importing the audio voiceover.

I had written out the voiceover script near to the beginning of the filming process, and I had already annotated a rough set of timings to match up what needed to be said at the same time as which video clip. To achieve this accurately, I watched the completed film at the same time as I recorded the voiceover. Because of the gaps left by the scenes I cut from the film, I knew I had to re-evaluate some sections of the timings, but this was easily done. Once I had recorded a few versions of each chapter, I went through and chose which ones I preferred and imported them into Premiere, making a quick crop of any excess silence at the beginning and end of each clip and lining them up to their respective chapters.

All in all, I’m happy with the finished product and the way the voiceover adds so much to the visuals.

In what way does the work of Francesca Woodman explore the concepts of femininity and sexuality ?

“Woodman’s photographs show a subject poised between presence and absence, where the body seems to hesitate in its visibility and identity.”

Townsend C, 2006, “Francesca Woodman: Scattered in Space and Time“

INTRODUCTION-

The concept of femininity, its definitions and boundaries, has been explored thousands of times by multitudes of photographers, artists, philosophers and writers, female or not. It changes again and again with each individual interpretation and cultural movement, with the waves of feminism, and with the passing of artistic and cultural movements. The idea that there is an inherent essence to being female has been examined in depth by many artists, writers, philosophers and linguists, including by Judith Butler, whose work “Gender Trouble” revolutionised the way femininity and gender in general is thought of and discussed academically, as well as having a massive impact on the LGBTQ+ community, where gender and sexuality are often seen as fundamentally intertwined and are often questioned and analysed. These notions can all be seen to be represented in, an influence on, or interpreted in Francesca Woodman’s work in some way. From her depiction of her own femininity and sexuality, I believe that Woodman’s work is exceptional in portraying how she views these concepts in a way that is not only original but also has links to other artistic and cultural movements. In this essay I will explore how she connects her personal experience with other photographers’ work and her understanding of the photographic and artistic scene surrounding her work. I will provide an in-depth analysis of her work and discuss how it illustrates her experience with her own femininity. I will explain how she explores her sexuality look at contextual factors and other links to cultural and artistic movements, artists and themes.

THEORETICAL CONTEXT-

Women in the world of art and cinema have continually been portrayed, mainly by men, as sexual objects; their purpose being for exhibition only. Laura Mulvey puts it simply, “in their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed” (Mulvey 1975:19) which accurately explains the persistent representation of the female body as an object of desire first and foremost, both for the artist and characters within the artwork or film as well as the spectator. This perception of women as sexual objects can be linked to many traditional social attitudes regarding gender roles and can be argued to be the base of modern rape culture. However, this connection between a person’s sex and their gender has been furiously debated for decades and probably longer, possibly most notably by Judith Butler in her iconic and transformative book “Gender Trouble”. Her main points can be summarised as this: gender is a socially constructed performance, people’s gender identities are often far more complex than society expects, and the fact that women are socialised to fit within a set of defined “feminine” characteristics. In simple terms, “sex is not the biological meaning of gender and is socially constructed by norms, just as gender is an ongoing performance” (Marilou Niedda, 2020;1). Butler theorises that there is a clear disconnect between a person’s biological sex and their gender, meaning androgyny is a completely valid and understood form of gender expression. Androgyny in photography is used by many artists, often female ones, to distance themselves from the over-sexualised images of women which are seemingly everywhere in art and film, to show themselves as artists breaking barriers, and to represent women in general as more than just erotic objects. 

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Presenting oneself as androgynous was used by Surrealists especially, because it subverted typical expectations of how women were portrayed in art, and it sometimes even caused controversy within the art world. It is essentially a way of fighting back against the fetishisation of the female body and against the male gaze, and the fact that Woodman was a teenager when she first started making these images makes it all the more impressive. The idea that “acting feminine” is an ongoing performance brought on by social expectations was famously explored by Simone de Beauvoir in her book The Second Sex (1949), “one is not born but rather becomes a woman,” which can be interpreted as an explanation of how traditionally feminine behaviour isn’t the natural state of being for people born to the female sex. Furthermore it can be said that the use of androgyny and femininity in art and photography, not only by Woodman but by everyone, is more of a statement of confrontation against traditional femininity than conformity to gender norms.

WOODMAN IN RELATION TO FEMININITY-

“In 1986 Abigail Solomon-Godeau presented Woodman as a prodigy who could be understood as critiquing the historical and linguistic construction of femininity and trying to produce an essentially feminist aesthetic” (Townsend 2006). Often in highly posed and abstract positions, she mainly uses herself as the subject of her images as well as other women and the occasional man, almost always featuring nudity in a way that de-sexualises their bodies and creates a strange sense of experimentation and self-exploration, where the viewer neither feels like a peeping-Tom nor engaged in a sexual act, but rather a witness to her grasp of her own femininity and sexuality, which is fluid and questioning in nature.

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This can be explored by Butler’s theory of gender performance, namely “to say that gender is performative is to say that nobody really is a gender from the start” (Butler, 2011). Below are a few examples of Woodman’s use of nudity in her artwork in which there is no sexual aspect, which is in direct contrast to the vast majority of art (not just photography) featuring nude women. This could be interpreted in a couple ways, for example that it is simply the experimentative steps of a teenager who does not fully see herself as a sexual being yet. On the other hand, it could be perceived as a deliberate and premeditated attempt to break barriers surrounding women in the world of art by using her own body to contradict the idea that the female body can only be a sexual thing. Whichever of these interpretations one subscribes to, there is a prominent sense of androgyny and fluidity in these images and, indeed, throughout Woodman’s whole body of work, that demonstrates her incredible talent and capability to provide actual meaning and thought alongside aesthetically and technically pleasing artwork.

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Woodman’s signature use of long exposure to achieve a blurred body has been construed in many different ways, but most often as a form of disappearance. She is essentially hiding herself in the environment she chooses to surround herself in, but for what reason? The far-left image features a nude Woodman creeping around a corner on her hands and knees to face a mirror. It is one of the few images where the camera blur does not obscure her face, and her use of a mirror to reflect the camera’s “eye” back onto itself gives us an insight into how she sees herself. She appears curious, but tentative and maybe even fearful, revealing how her teenage self is going through a period where her identity and self-perception becomes important. She was nineteen at the time this was taken, so although she may not have known it, she was only a few years away from the end of her career and her life. The second image is different in that, while she is still fully nude, her entire body is obscured by blur due to her manipulation of the camera’s exposure, and her face is not visible. She has positioned herself within a hole in the headstone of a grave (a common feature of some older graves), and so is, in a rather morbid way, encasing herself in death. This could symbolise how she feels like herself and her body is trapped within life itself, or possibly how she sees death as a way of “passing through” to another place. The key point is that her body is not meant to be perceived as sexual in any way, even though she is entirely nude, which feels very modern and liberating. Another interpretation of this image is that it is the way her body is literally emerging from childhood into womanhood, using the grave as a metaphor for this. Any way it is perceived, it is clear that Woodman uses her signature long exposure technique to further present her interpretation of her own femininity and sexuality in a vague and androgynous manner. 

COMPARING WOODMAN TO MICHALS-

One of Woodman’s most obvious influences- and also one of the only ones she acknowledged as an influence on her artwork- was Duane Michals. He is an American Surrealist photographer, born in 1932, who mainly creates cinematic narratives through sequences of highly staged images, but also has taken many portraits of influential artists, such as Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp, over the course of his career. There are several clear similarities between his body of work and Woodman’s, possibly most obviously their use of long exposure techniques to intentionally blur the subjects of their photography. 

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Above is an example of both Michal’s creation of narratives through sequences as well as this photographic technique. The dark background in focus contrasted against the bright white and blurry figures in the foreground help to make this photo-series impactful and emphasise the emotions portrayed in the second image: fear, shock, horror, hunger. Michals uses blur in a different way to Woodman, however, using it to further the narrative and his intentions behind the photograph rather than directly impacting the perception of the main subject, like Woodman does.

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Both artists also use mirrors in their work as a way to portray how the subject sees themself, whether positively or negatively. Michals’ image above can be interpreted as reflecting how the subject has a distorted perception of themselves, and Woodman uses it in a similar way, but in a less literal manner. They both have fairly high tonal ranges which add depth and make the images more interesting overall, capturing the attention of potential viewers. In Woodman’s image, the whitest part of the photograph is the floor directly behind the subject’s head’s reflection in the mirror, which serves to make it the main focal point. In Michals’ photograph, the whitest part is clearly the strip of wall behind the mirror the subject is holding up, which has the same effect as Woodman in that the subject’s reflection is very obviously the intended main focus of the image as a whole.

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Another notable area Michal’s influence on Woodman is the use of angelic imagery, shown above. “The Fallen Angel” (1968) is a photo-series about a girl and an angel who succumbs to his lust for the girl and kisses her but loses his wings as a result and is overcome by guilt and shame. This is a more traditionally Biblical portrayal of angels; the angel being male, and the concept of human sexuality is surrounded by shame and other negative emotions. This is in contrast to Woodman’s use of angels in her “Angel Series” (1977) in Italy, where she is the angel herself and is also nude, but in a way where it feels liberating and joyful overall rather than shameful. These differences can be attributed to both Woodman’s youth and her femininity altering her perception of angels and the nude human body, contrary to Michals, who is male and was 36 at the time of the “Fallen Angel” series. Michals’ photo-series also features a nude female woman, who is lying on her side on the bed. Her body is entirely facing the camera (and therefore the viewer) and her role in the narrative is clearly only as an object of lust and desire, the temptation that the angel feels and the ultimate cause of his suffering. This is (unfortunately) standard in the world of art and photography, as explained in the beginning of this essay, and further illustrates how ground-breaking Woodman’s work was in presenting a different approach to the portrayal of female nudity and femininity in general. 

CONCLUSION-

“Woodman’s linking of the woman´s body to the walls and surfaces it seems bonded to repeats the theme of the body as itself a surface.”

Abigail Solomon-Godeau, (1986) “Just Like A Woman”, published in: Photographic Work

In essence, Woodman’s exploration of her own femininity feels almost like an attack on the stereotypical perception of femininity expected from a teenage girl, in that she is open and confident about her nude body without fetishising or overly-sexualising it in the way that many of her male contemporaries were doing at the time, the way her influences had done before, and in the way that (especially male) artists and photographers have continued to do since her death. She photographs her body within almost exclusively abandoned and dilapidated spaces in a Gothic-like manner, which on the surface reduces it’s perceived “worth” but in actuality elevates her message and the emotions she conveys to even higher platforms. Although she never credited many, if any, other photographers and artists as direct influences on her art, but the few she has can clearly be seen throughout her whole body of work. For example, the extended metaphor of angels and general angelic imagery can be attributed to Duane Michals, and she has often been grouped within the Surrealist art movement as a result of the often strange and eerie tone we get from her photographs. Her age is also an impactful factor on her perception of femininity and how she represents her sexuality, as youth often sees the subjects of sex and gender identity as far more fluid and questioning than older generations tend to. In my opinion, her continued use of the nude female body is one of the most important components when evaluating how she explores femininity, because she completely subverts the traditional expectations of a passive, naïve, yet somehow intensely sexual woman, and replaces it with this image of a person who is at the same time shy and confident, trapped and free, and, to a degree, mocking the viewer’s shock at these unexpected sights.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY-

• Butler, J. (2011) Your Behaviour Creates Your Gender.  
• Mulvey, L. (1975) Visual Pleasures. Screen
• Niedda, M. (2020). Feminist and queer studies: Judith Butler’s conceptualisation of gender.
• Solomon-Godeau, A. (1986) Just Like A Woman. Photographic Work
• Townsend, C. (2006) Francesca Woodman: Scattered in Space and Time). London: Phaidon Press Ltd

title-

In what way does the work of Francesca Woodman explore the concepts of femininity and sexuality ?

main points-

INTRO: femininity has been explored in different ways throughout history, idea of gender identity is linked to sexuality for many people, Woodman links these concepts to other artists as well as portraying her own representation

PARA 1: women are often portrayed as sexual objects, Judith Butler’s work on gender roles/the disconnect between sex and gender, gender as a social construct/performance, use of androgyny in photography reflecting this, LINK TO SURREALISM

PARA 2: woodman in relation to femininity, the way she uses herself and her nude body in a sort-of desexualising way/ feels less like voyeurism and more like exploration, gender expression and self identity as fluid concepts, link to Woodman’s young age and how it could just be an example of her experimentation, long exposure as an artistic technique, ANALYSIS OF IMAGES

PARA 3: linking woodman to another artist (duane michals), michals’ use of long exposure and narrative sequencing, COMPARE AND CONTRAST TWO ARTIST IMAGES, use angel series for comparison

PARA 4: woodman’s fight against stereotypical femininity, link to other influences, use of space/abandoned buildings (sense of value), her youth as impactful on her perception of identity/sexuality/gender,

(possible) quotes-

“Woodman’s photographs show a subject poised between presence and absence, where the body seems to hesitate in its visibility and identity.” Townsend C, 2006, “Francesca Woodman: Scattered in Space and Time“

“sex is not the biological meaning of gender and is socially constructed by norms, just as gender is an ongoing performance” (Marilou Niedda, 2020;1)

Simone de Beauvoir in her book The Second Sex (1949), “one is not born but rather becomes a woman,”

“in their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed” (Mulvey 1975:19)

“In 1986 Abigail Solomon-Godeau presented Woodman as a prodigy who could be understood as critiquing the historical and linguistic construction of femininity and trying to produce an essentially feminist aesthetic” (Townsend 2006)

“Woodman’s linking of the woman´s body to the walls and surfaces it seems bonded to repeats the theme of the body as itself a surface.” Abigail Solomon-Godeau, (1986) “Just Like A Woman”, published in: Photographic Work