All Is Truth.: Cindy Sherman.

photograph by Richard Durbridge.

Cindy Sherman (American, b. 1954)

Her photographs are "cultural barometers."

Can you dig it?

I can.

Her work has been described as feminist, misogynistic, superficial, complex, underrated, and overrated. To put it plainly, Sherman isn’t her own muse—you are.

Okay, we all know old-school Cindy Sherman photographs. We also know that they are not necessarily self-portraits, but instead they are social commentaries on the role of the female, the role of the artist, etc.

I'm bursting with excitement. I love her latest work.

She never ceases to be fantastic.

She's the sarcastic bitch of the photography world, and that's what i love about her.

Her photographs are cinematic, theatrical, cheesy portrait studio(sometimes)... so eclectic yet so uniquely her.

Our latest photography assignment was portraiture and there is often a debate about what constitutes a portrait or a self portrait and I think what is written in Cindy's bio sort of hits the nail on the head:

For a work of art to be considered a portrait, the artist must have intent to portray a specific, actual person. This can be communicated through such techniques as naming a specific person in the title of the work or creating an image in which the physical likeness leads to an emotional individuality unique to a specific person. While these criteria are not the only ways of connoting a portrait, they are just two examples of how Sherman carefully communicates to the viewer that these works are not meant to depict Cindy Sherman the person. By titling each of the photographs "Untitled", as well as numbering them, Sherman depersonalizes the images.

She went to school at the State University College at Buffalo, modeled and acted in B list movies.

I love reading artist bios and seeing how artists work.
I connect a lot with her bio, I think.
My entire family wonders how my twin and I turned out to be artistic...
My older sister is crafty and taught me how to do bubble letters in high school. I thought she was very stylish and I adored her so I emulated everything she did-- we both did. Although she didn't pursue art (she got her degree in Chemical Engineering), i still think there's potential there-- perhaps in the future.
Since the 4th grade, Jessi wanted to be a photographer. And she did it.
Me, well, I've always been all over the place-- and I connect a lot with the following statement about how Cindy grew up-- (my dad designs robots and does electrical design and my mom does draftsman work with instrumentation designs and layouts... very technical stuff.)
In bold are things that hit home to me.

Unlike some budding artists, Sherman was not particularly involved in the arts as a young person. Sherman's parents were not involved in the arts; her father made a living as an engineer and her mother worked as a reading teacher. Born relatively late in her parents' lives, Sherman's father was retired by the time she was in fifth grade. Sherman has said that, ""It wasn't until college that I had any concept of what was going on in the art world. My idea of being an artist as a kid was a courtroom artist or one of those boardwalk artists who do caricatures. My parents had a book of, like, the one hundred one beautiful paintings, which included Dali and Picasso among the most recent artists." Despite her parents lack of artistic interest, they were supportive of her choice to enter art school after finishing high school, though, according to Sherman, her mother did caution her to "take a few teaching courses just in case."