Francesca Woodman (1958  1981) was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring herself and female models. Many of her photographs show young nude women, blurred by camera movement and long exposure times, merging with their surroundings, or with their faces obscured. Her work continues to be the subject of much attention, years after she committed suicide at the age of 22. This book focuses on Woodman s late 1970s Roman sojourn, reproducing a selection of her letters and writings from that time, as well as exploring the influence that the classics, in art as well as in literature, had upon her work. It also includes a number of pictures taken by her friends that portray the photographer herself, as well as ancillary visual material. This is an intense and intimate portrayal of Francesca Woodman s universe.