Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and artist. She is the only woman on the list of 10 most expensive photographs ever sold and she’s on it twice. If you don’t know who Cindy Sherman is, shame on you.
Sherman is first and foremost an Artist. Her primary medium is photography. Working in series, she creates constructed self-portraits and typically photographs herself in a range of costumes and theatrical make-up. Sherman works alone in her studio, assuming the various roles of author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model.
I kinda love the fact that Cindy Sherman failed her first photography class at Buffalo State College. Initially her main interest was painting. Eventually she re-enrolled in photo with a different instructor, Barbara Jo Revelle. The new class, new instructor made all the difference. She credits Revelle with introducing her to conceptual art.
Sherman first gained attention from her series Untitled Film Stills, which she completed in the late 70’s, early 80’s. The series of black and white photographs suggest films stills taken from old film noir and/or B movies of previous decades. She appears in the photographs as the archetypical female character of those films; the ingénue, the femme fatale, etc.
She’s gone on to create a huge variety of series, each with its own theme. Thematic subject matter ranges from clowns, to dead bodies. Her most work is a series of wall size prints of what appear to me as ‘real housewives’ of wherever.
In recent years Sherman has also completed a number of collaborations with the fashion world. She worked with MAC, Chanel and fellow fashion photographers.
