L to R: Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” c. 1979-80, 6 3/16 x 9 in. (15.718 x 22.86 cm). Gelatin silver print / Julia Margaret Cameron. “Iolande and Floss,” c. 1864, 250 x 208 mm. Albumen print. Victoria and Albert Museum / Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” 1979, 7 7/16 x 7 7/16 in. (18.893 x 18.893 cm). Gelatin silver print / Julia Margaret Cameron. “The Salutation,” 1864, 216 x 178 mm. Albumen print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles / Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” c. 1977-78, 7 1/2 x 7 3/16 in. (19.05 x 18.258 cm). Gelatin silver print / Julia Margaret Cameron. “The Double Star,” 1864, 253 x 200 mm. Albumen print. Victoria and Albert Museum / Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” c. 1979-80, 3 15/16 x 9 1/2 in. (10.003 x 24.13 cm). Gelatin silver print / Pair: Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” c. 1979-80 / Julia Margaret Cameron. “The Sisters,” 1873 / Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” c. 1979-80, 5 x 3 15/16 in. (12.7 x 10 cm). Gelatin silver print / Julia Margaret Cameron. “The Sisters,” 1873, 356 x 293 mm. Albumen print. Wilson Centre for Photography. All Francesca Woodman artworks © Woodman Family Foundation / DACS, London.
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place, London
Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron frequently used doubling in their photographs. For Cameron, posing pairs of models was often a visual strategy used in her enactments of biblical and mythical narratives. Woodman’s pairs often mimic or mirror an environment or another figure, suggesting a body double or stand-in that complicates the idea of self-portraiture. Both artists were likely familiar with the art-historical associations of doubling or twinning. Twins have been ever-present in classical mythology and history painting and were a prominent curiosity in nineteenth-century literature, art and science. And the early twentieth-century Surrealists—after Cameron’s time but very much an influence on Woodman—often used doubles to represent the uncanny and explore the conscious and unconscious.
