Self-deceit #1, Rome 1978

This silver gelatin print by Francesca Woodman was made in Rome. The image is small but very striking, and the way she has used the mirror really got me thinking about the layers of self-representation. Woodman's in the photograph herself, crouched low to the ground, almost animalistic. The mirror reflects her face, but it's also broken, so the reflection is fractured, incomplete. I can only imagine what she was thinking as she made this. She must have been very conscious of her own body and how it appears in the world. There is a certain vulnerability, but also a defiance, a refusal to be defined by any single image. It reminds me of Claude Cahun, another artist who used photography to explore gender and identity. It's like they’re holding a conversation across time. There is a sense of play, but also of something darker and more unsettling.