Francesca woodman. Self Portrait.

born: Colorado 1958 died 1982 

woodman was a black and white self portrait photographer who uses square format film from Colorado. At age 13 she became depressed and started to create dark and depressing photographs of herself mainly inside a small room with white walls and an old wooden floor. Her photos convey her emotion as solidarity using black and white square format film, black and white is very different from colour, as Ted Grant rightly said “When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!” and this is true especially when you put this photographers perspective into view. she was extremely depressed and her images show just that, she has used a lot of negative space to show her solidarity but it is carefully composed, using leading lines and the composition of square format film. square format film was what Woodman uses, this is an extremely important factor as it has a clearer centre point as opposed to 35mm as it isn't square. 
Woodman uses long shutter speeds from 1/2 - 5 seconds, as a self portrait photographer this is important and very clever, Woodman uses long shutter speeds to suggest her slow progression through life with a mental illness. as she has long shutter speeds her photographs show the movement of her body (motion blur). this self portrait of Woodman was taken with a long shutter speed, around 1-5 seconds, her body expression suggests that she is mentally isolated, and because she is backed into a corner it could also suggest that she is scared and wants to get away. This is an idea to consider, not in Woodman’s context but in the context of university life and how I'm coping personally with the dramatic change from moving from the two iv grown up in all my life to a completely unknown area to me. She has a very good understanding of the camera and the use of slow shutter speeds and negative space makes her a very unique photographer who photographed herself.