Francesca Woodman was born into a family of artists in Denver, Colorado, in 1958. She started taking pictures at the age of thirteen when her father gifted her a camera. The family often traveled to Italy and her parents bought a farm-house outside of Florence in 1968. Italy and its language, culture, and art history were frequent sources of inspiration for Francesca Woodman. After attending a few photography courses in high school, she moved to Providence in 1975 to study at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Aaron Siskind was one of her teachers. While at college, she lived in an apartment in an industrial area where many of her pictures from that time were created. Folllowing her graduation, she moved to New York where she photographed in both B&W and colour. Francesca Woodman took her own life on January 19, 1981.

 

A first solo exhibition traveled in the United States in 1986 and her first European exhibitions date back to the 1990’s. Her photographs are in the collection of major international museums such as the Tate Modern in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Francesca Woodman is represented by Marian Goodman Gallery (New York, Paris, London).