Post by commandax on Jun 16, 2009 23:14:37 GMT -8
If anyone else has anything interesting to add to this thread, feel free.
Cindy Sherman is a renowned conceptual photographer who specializes in reflecting the personas and situations she photographs upon the template of her own face. She said, "I feel I'm anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear." Her first series of these photographs was 69 images created from 1977-1980, known as the "Untitled Film Stills."
“I’m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than me.”
''I don't think I'm any of them. Most of the characters are pretty flamboyant, and I'm a middle-of-the-road, basic sort of person.''
Q: What mistakes do people make about the “Film Stills”?
A: Referring to them as self-portraits.
Q: What about those who call your work narcissistic?
A: I really don’t think that they are about me. It’s maybe about me maybe not wanting to be me and wanting to be all these other characters. Or at least try them on.
The New York Times said, "Ms. Sherman's images have served as critical flashpoints since the 1970's, when they were initially dismissed by some critics for what was considered an excessive concern with appearance, costume and makeup. They were subsequently defended for that same stereotypical preoccupation, as a radical visual deconstruction of the feminine mystique.
Her work has been deplored as an anarchic endorsement of voyeurism and movie-star narcissism, and applauded as a parody of self-regard. While some critics have dismissed Ms. Sherman's work as empty and kitschy, others see complexity beneath the absurd surface of her images, as well as a depth of human vulnerability."
Cindy Sherman is a renowned conceptual photographer who specializes in reflecting the personas and situations she photographs upon the template of her own face. She said, "I feel I'm anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear." Her first series of these photographs was 69 images created from 1977-1980, known as the "Untitled Film Stills."
“I’m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than me.”
''I don't think I'm any of them. Most of the characters are pretty flamboyant, and I'm a middle-of-the-road, basic sort of person.''
Q: What mistakes do people make about the “Film Stills”?
A: Referring to them as self-portraits.
Q: What about those who call your work narcissistic?
A: I really don’t think that they are about me. It’s maybe about me maybe not wanting to be me and wanting to be all these other characters. Or at least try them on.
The New York Times said, "Ms. Sherman's images have served as critical flashpoints since the 1970's, when they were initially dismissed by some critics for what was considered an excessive concern with appearance, costume and makeup. They were subsequently defended for that same stereotypical preoccupation, as a radical visual deconstruction of the feminine mystique.
Her work has been deplored as an anarchic endorsement of voyeurism and movie-star narcissism, and applauded as a parody of self-regard. While some critics have dismissed Ms. Sherman's work as empty and kitschy, others see complexity beneath the absurd surface of her images, as well as a depth of human vulnerability."
