Francesca Woodman - The Eel

In Italy, Francesca spent a year in Rome from 1977 to 1978, where she produced numerous series of photographs that she had made in an abandoned factory, series that she called "On being an angel" and "the el". In this photograph, her blurred body lying on the ground, curved around a white basin where an eel rolls around it, she creates two versions of her image with her body on one side and the other. The play of light and lines, the contrast between shapes and black and white, translate an alternation between concealment and marking that invites the viewer to come closer and take a more attentive, almost indiscreet look. The square format gives an intimate character to his image, his body is like a chameleon, swallowed up, that merges into space. Shot in which her face is completely hidden, she dresses her flesh and seems to disappear into the afterlife, always worried about her existence, she always poses in dilapidated sets, rooms and floors, and here creates one of her new extraordinary self-portraits. She is like a chameleon, swallowed by the elements, which merge into space, absorbed between shadow and light, she is constantly fragmenting and creating a multitude of photographs that embrace her body, she is always far from rest, his face on photo paper, tearing from vitality. The play of light and lines that it integrates, the contrast between the shapes and the black and white, translate an alternation between concealment and marking that invites the viewer to come closer and take a more attentive, almost indiscreet look, by using the square format, which gives an intimate character to his images. “My photographs depend on an emotional state. »Francesca Woodman