NB Updated SEE post on 16th Dec 2008
For me there are few photographers that we can unhesitatingly say are great photographers, great artists. Cindy Sherman is one.
At the simplest level we can say she has made a career out of dressing up and taking photographs of herself.
Ah but its much, much more than that……… Every detail counts, every detail is there because she has consciously constructed it as part of a whole essay of ’intended’ meaning, and of meaning-making possibilities of us the viewers. Many enjoyable photographs are created by happenstance – happy chance – you could say that Henri Cartier-Bresson muilt a whole career on capturing the ‘happy accident’. With Sherman there is no accident – she doesn’t hunt and capture she constructs.
“I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colorful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you’re looking at is something totally opposite. It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It’s more challenging to look at the other side.”
— Cindy Sherman
Great collection of Cindy Sherman photographs HERE
A great ‘mega-site’ on women photographers exists HERE
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All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE
