Francesca Woodman - Influences

Influences

Among other factors, critics and historians have written that Woodman was influenced by the following literary genre, myth, artistic movement, and photographers:

  • Gothic fiction. She is reported to have identified with Victorian heroines.(pp. 20–27)
  • The myth of Apollo and Daphne, as evidenced by photographs in which Woodman is entangled in tree roots or wears birch bark on her arms.
  • Surrealism.(p. 19) For example, Woodman "followed the movement's tradition of not explaining work" and demonstrated a "desire to crack the code of appearances."(p. 18)
  • Man Ray (e.g., a series of his photographs of Meret Oppenheim, and his surrealist works).
  • Duane Michals.(p. 54) Woodman's and Michal's work share features such as blurring, angels, and handwriting in common.(pp. 29–30)
  • Deborah Turbeville.(pp. 30–31,39-40) Woodman had "admired" Turbeville's work,(p. 155) and had compiled an artist's book for Turbeville which contained a written request for the older photographer to telephone her.(p. 184)

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