The first reaction we had to Francesca Woodman’s Untitled, 1975-80 was shock.

But after finding out that she staged this photograph and a door had not, in fact, fallen on top of her, our second reaction was also shock because who purposefully puts a loose door on top of themselves?

The answer is Francesca Woodman. She put loose doors on top of herself because that’s just the kind of artist she was. She’s in that gray zone between extremely cool and wildly creepy. The eeriest part about her photographs though is their context. Woodman committed suicide at the age of 22, a fact that has been inextricably linked to the tone of her work since the day she died. People like to think that she only got famous because of her terrible fate, but she one million percent would have become famous anyway seeing as she was probably the most talented photographer of her generation, if not in history. Sorry, Annie Leibovitz.

This photograph, which was created while Woodman was a student at RISD (1975-78), displays how seriously Woodman took her work. “She set up a studio and living space in the shabby rooms of a former dry goods store, and frequently worked in nearby abandoned houses and other rundown spaces.” She wasn’t afraid to get dirty, get naked, or delve deep into her darkness for material, as shown in this rather off-putting image. When asked why she often uses herself as a model for her images, she replied, “It’s a matter of convenience, I’m always available.” And probably because while all of her classmates were out doing the hustle or whatever was hot in the late '70’s, Woodman was working on her craft. As her father said, “You don’t go off and do hobbies on Sunday or something like that. You make art.” If only she lived long enough to fully develop her genius.