Chris TownsendFrancesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman has become one of the most influential photographers of the late twentieth century. She took her first photographs at the age of thirteen and, less than a decade later, created a body of work that has made her one of the most important American artists of the 1970s. This monograph is the most comprehensive work on Francesca Woodman published to date. The book presents more than 200 works by the artist, some of which have never been exhibited or published before, as well as previously unpublished extracts from her diaries, selected and introduced by her father George Woodman. The book also includes some of her long diazotypes, as well as pages from her artist’s books, including Some Disordered Interior Geometries, which was published in 1981, the year she took her own life. In a comprehensive text, Chris Townsend examines the influence of gothic literature, surrealism, feminism and postminimalism on Francesca Woodman’s photographs, while situating the artist in relation to her contemporaries, such as Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince. Chris Townsend is a senior lecturer in the Department of Media Arts at the Royal Holloway, University of London. His recent publications include The Art of Bill Viola and The Art of Rachel Whiteread (2004), and New Art from London (2006). He also curated the exhibitions Rapture: Art’s Seduction by Fashion, 1970-2000 (Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2002).