Francesca Woodman: The Roman Years Between Flesh and Film

This volume analyzes, from a new and innovative point of view, the life and works of Francesca Woodman through the photographs and writings that belong to her Roman sojourn. A precocious artist, a border-line personality between the American culture and the Italian culture, Francesca Woodman reaches the acme of her artistic parable in Rome that, to her, is the place and the moment where her aesthetics and style are developed to the fullest. By tracing back the author’s Roman itineraries and by gathering the stories told by her friends, this study reconstructs Woodman’s most significant encounters that happened between the Maldoror bookshop in Via del Parione and the ateliers of the Nuova Scuola Romana at the ex Pastificio Cerere in San Lorenzo. Through the writings and accounts recorded over a long period of research, this book highlights the echoes and references to Surrealism that can be found in Francesca Woodman’s photos; her use of the body as a proper language; and the topic of the metamorphosis as a sequel of life, where death is no longer seen as a final lap. In her pictures the observer discretely approaches the images and timidly takes part in the private and precious conversation that takes place inside each shot. This essay shows a new and intimate side of this great photographer, taking the reader by the hand through an intimate journey where words and images intertwine to trace the contours of Francesca Woodman’s universe.