Fascinating stories of both photographers here. The artistic sensibility in both of them is just incredible. Early this year I was in Rome and met a gallerist/art curator who was part of the team who discovered Farncesca Woodman and curated her first exhibition. The stories that guy told me were delightful!
Interesting. I like your post. However, the show of the two together to me has always been a stretch. As I understand it, worried children on JMC's return to Sri Lanka gave her a camera. They were afraid she would be bored and needed a hobby. She converted a chicken coop to a studio. Due to the technology at the time, the camera and the lens she was given her sitter(s) were positioned a long way from the camera. Her exposure time was very long and her sitters often showed motion, shallow depth of field, etc. in the final prints. These were technical issues from everything I have read, at least everything I read until the current interpretations got ahold of the work. I found putting the two together was forced and not a great decision. They are both excellent and important on their own. Leave it there.
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I agree that it is intriguing why the curator decided to show them together; I haven't found much background to answer that question. A feminist statement to bring them together? Perhaps. I don't know, and this wouldn't interest me. I took what spoke to my artistic sensibility and left the rest for others to deconstruct. If you have any reading to recommend, please send it my way. I would be interested.
A friend of mine who is a quite important photography dealer in London and has handled both photographers on a number of occasions went to see the show and found it interesting, but wanting. The two photographers never met, they are close to 100 years apart. A curator might find the pair fun to speculate about through a 2023 lens, but it feels very contrived. There are good biographies on both women. If you are interested in a deeper dive. The Curator started out in glass, went to prints and drawings, is working on a PhD. She is Australian and worked for the NPG for a few years, now back in Australia in charge of 'International Art' at the National Gallery there. Perhaps the collections of prints by Woodman and JMC at the NPG were just too good to resist. Who knows..... ;0)
Fascinating stories of both photographers here. The artistic sensibility in both of them is just incredible. Early this year I was in Rome and met a gallerist/art curator who was part of the team who discovered Farncesca Woodman and curated her first exhibition. The stories that guy told me were delightful!
How nice. Thank you for sharing. I love both of their works, visceral yet elegant. I wish I had been a fly on one of these four walls...
Interesting. I like your post. However, the show of the two together to me has always been a stretch. As I understand it, worried children on JMC's return to Sri Lanka gave her a camera. They were afraid she would be bored and needed a hobby. She converted a chicken coop to a studio. Due to the technology at the time, the camera and the lens she was given her sitter(s) were positioned a long way from the camera. Her exposure time was very long and her sitters often showed motion, shallow depth of field, etc. in the final prints. These were technical issues from everything I have read, at least everything I read until the current interpretations got ahold of the work. I found putting the two together was forced and not a great decision. They are both excellent and important on their own. Leave it there.
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I agree that it is intriguing why the curator decided to show them together; I haven't found much background to answer that question. A feminist statement to bring them together? Perhaps. I don't know, and this wouldn't interest me. I took what spoke to my artistic sensibility and left the rest for others to deconstruct. If you have any reading to recommend, please send it my way. I would be interested.
A friend of mine who is a quite important photography dealer in London and has handled both photographers on a number of occasions went to see the show and found it interesting, but wanting. The two photographers never met, they are close to 100 years apart. A curator might find the pair fun to speculate about through a 2023 lens, but it feels very contrived. There are good biographies on both women. If you are interested in a deeper dive. The Curator started out in glass, went to prints and drawings, is working on a PhD. She is Australian and worked for the NPG for a few years, now back in Australia in charge of 'International Art' at the National Gallery there. Perhaps the collections of prints by Woodman and JMC at the NPG were just too good to resist. Who knows..... ;0)