Customer Reviews

Francesca Woodman

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I, personally, like Francesca Woodman's photographs and they are well represented in this book. It's a lovely, big, heavy, think-paged, glossy, pretty book with a giant gold F and W on the front and back cover (under the paper sleeve). I found the commentary at the back by her father and Betsy Berne to be informative, interesting, and helpful and enjoyed looking over the selection of her journal entries they included. It makes it much easier to read her writing when you know that she self-consciously chose an affected style. Actually, I thought Betsy Bernes' three page letter was better written than most of the book and certainly more believable. But I do have a tendency to raise a questioning eye-brow at a lot of the sorts of things that art critics seem to find so very important, obvious, or interesting. For instance, I've never really been on board with this whole obsession of turning every object or juxtaposition into a metaphor for the camera. It's practically Freudian, the connections are so stretched sometimes. Yes, I actually read the 70 page essay on her work and, to give it credit, it was thorough and pretty well organized with lots of examples in the margins of her contemporaries' work and that of her influences. I did learn a lot about her life and the context in which she grew up and made her art and about how very much she may have intended to say with each piece. But I do say 'may have' quite purposefully. Read the text with a grain of salt and you can get a lot out of this book. And, of course, the pictures make it worth it.

I wanted anyone interested in this book to know that Phaidon will soon be setting a second print run to press. Due to ongoing demand the 2nd printing will be available by late Spring/early Summer 2010. The high prices currently being sought by third parties will tumble as these books hit the market.
This book is the best of all the titles ever printed that cover her brief life. It offers reproductions of about 25% of her known vintage prints and will have to do until her Estate prints more of her negatives or authorizes a catalogue raisonné, which would cost a small fortune.

Additional news: I knew Francesca quite well during the last 6 months of her short life and saw the film "The Woodmans" a few months back with the expectation that some personal questions might have been answered in the course of the movie. Unfortunately, they weren't. Anyone who would like more specifics on her life should make an effort to see the film but be warned that it's not a simple, pretty picture of a loving family...
If you'd like to watch the trailer, visit the movie's website.

I really love this book it's so nice to finally have a book of Francesca Woodmans work I can actually afford. Francesca Woodman was a prodigy genius and her pictures go way beyond photography she did something very special. I wish though that they published more work that I haven't seen if there are 800 pictures why do they keep reproducing the same ones? Also seeing her journal entries inside the book was amazing that would be a book right there her journals. Overall the book is beautiful the pictures are printed in very good quality.

I have over 100 books on photographers and photography, but this one is my most treasured. The images are exquisitely reproduced, and arranged in such a thoughtful manner, and the accompanying text/outline/stories add a human element to the tragic story of such a brilliant and gifted photographer.

Francesca Woodman's work in this collection illustrates the pensive nature of the process and general respect for the properties, dialogue and exploration of photo making. Applying the imperfections of the photographic medium as techniques to camouflage the vulnerability of the female nude while also playing with the condition of gendered vision is a theme common in Woodman's work. Using frame, time and motion, light and texture, Woodman is able to hide in her self-made landscapes, even when she herself is the foreground. She manipulates her materials and surroundings to disorient the space she represents, excavating structures and displacing the space that they symbolize. Depicting traditional poses, Woodman's work questions convention by including objects, movements and compositions that make her work inherently and undeniably strange. The photographs articulate a set of terms that guide the viewer through the image in ways that both disorient and seduce. Her poses are fetishized, yet obliterated by their photographic violence and figurative ambiguity.
The book takes us through the photographic history Francesca Woodman amassed during her life. Starting with a self-portrait taken at age thirteen, then to school projects and assignments she produced while enrolled at RISD, and ending with extracts from the one artist book produced during her lifetime and entries from her journal. A large portion of the book is dedicated to essays referring to her artwork and its significance; a small section called "Seething with Ideas" written by George Woodman, the artist's father, is included toward the end.
Woodman's work, while unquestionably surreal and haunting, provides the viewer a glimpse into photographs created by an individual who presented critique of the traditions of photography and the construction of photographic imagery.

The book is great, many photos I've never seen of the artist and by the artist. Also, lots of information on the artist's life including a section written by her father. The book took almost 2 months to deliver but this was the fault of the seller, not amazon. All in all, glad I bought this item.

--nelle

I discovered Francesca Woodman's work in a gallery during a Europe trip. Her vision and talent are of the highest order and are even more impressive given her youth. I shudder to think of the great artist she could've grown into, had she not died tragically at such a young age. This fall there was a showing of her work at a major museum in Milan which I believe has since traveled on to London. American connoisseurs of fine photography, however, will be greatly pleased to know that next year, 2011, the San Francisco Museum of modern Art will host a major retrospective of her work and in 2012 this show will move to the Guggenheim in New York city. I have seen the catalogs of her Milan show and it's very good but unfortunately I haven't been able to acquire a copy here in this country. But I suspect that the catalog that accompanies her American exhibitions will be quite good. But in the meantime, this is an excellent collection of her work.

Chris Townsend's book is a well written one.
A solid book of god quality in terms of paper, cover, bindings, prints and such.

We're taken thru the work of Francesca, thru the diffrent periods of her short life and we can follow the change.
Parallels from/to other phtographers work.


When this young woman committed suicide in 1981 she left some 800 pictures behind her.
It is pictures that have had a huge impact on photographic art and perhaps even more so on some individuals.

I am one of those induviduals.

Francesca was an genious !!


Get a copy today.

Excellent book, I saw a lot of prints in this book that I hadn't seen anywhere else considering I dont live near any of the galleries her works displayed in. And the price was much better than the $350 i've seen elsewhere, and I didnt have to wait forever to ship. I'd do business with this company again, very much worth my money.

Ms. Woodman's photographs are no different than hundreds being turned out in art classes everyday. They do, however, present a consistent body of work that with the continued intellectual growth of their author, could have made contribution the world of photography. We have been denied this growth curve and that is sad.