Contemporary Photographer: Cindy Sherman

Cindy was born in 1954, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. She studied painting, art, and then photography at State University College at Buffalo. She now resides in New York.

Something that makes Cindy's work very unique is the fact that she often uses herself in her works, dressed up/made up as someone else. Recently, she did a series involving dolls, moving their body parts in sexual positions. I find this very interesting because it is an oxymoron of itself. Dolls are usually seen as innocent playthings, and this, puts a completely different perspective on a child's toy. She makes many of her images scary and grotesque, with things like vomit, mold, scary liquids.


Composition: balance, lighting, etc.
Sherman usually frames her subjects in the middle of the portrait. The perspective is mostly straight forward, looking directly at the subject at eye level . Some of her recreations look almost like old movie film stills, while others depict creepy clowns, doll body parts, or her dressed as a "valley girl"
Emphasis is almost always on the subject although she does have very interesting artifacts in the background at times. Her portraits are a mix of black and white and color. The black and white ones primarily being more conservative, old fashioned, and film still-ish, while her colored portraits are raunchy, racy, and controversial. The lighting is used to emphasize the subject, which is the main focus of all of her portraits.

To me, the concept behind Cindy's colored photography is to show herself as another person. Through art, you can be anyone, or anything you want to be, and that in being the photographer, you are the one who has control to how the audience or viewer perceives you.

Sherman uses projected slide backgrounds for some of her pictures, along with prosthetic body parts, body props, dolls, and makeup.

Motivations: Describe their goal/intention for creating this image/s.
She clams that she looks for beauty in the grotesque. To capture images that are not at all what they seem. Everyone can spot the ugly, extreme or disgusting, but not many can see the beauty within it.

I really enjoy the fact that she is not afraid to make herself look ditsy, gross, weird or stupid. She puts herself in her art which is very personal when it comes to critiques. I also love her film stills which have a much different style than her early works.