On 19 January 1981, a young female photographer fell angel-like from the loft window of a building on New York City's East Side. She fell several stories until she landed on the pavement below where she died on impact. The death of photographer Francesca Woodman, then just 22, perhaps felt inevitable, though perhaps we can only say that through the filter of speculative retrospect. Just the year before, Woodman, following several unsuccessful attempts to have her work recognised and the breakdown of a relationship, attempted suicide. After his daughter died, Francesca Woodman's father, George Woodman, suggested that Francesca had finally been tipped over the edge by the National Endowment for the Arts refusing her application for funding.
What's so ultimately tragic about all this is that, in death, Woodman's influence…
