Thoughts on Cindy Sherman:
Cindy Sherman began exploring self-portraits in the 1970s with her Untitled Film Stills. Her photographstake control of representation through self-portraiture by using herself as subject to make statements to her audience. During this postmodern period of the 1970s and 1980s, there was a rise of identity theory through which self-portraits became a significant tool for exploration.
Artists increasingly turned to photography to express their identities in terms of race, gender and sexuality, often using their own bodies as perfect instruments to draw attention to those who had been traditionally overlooked in the predominantly white, middle-class, male canon of the Western art world.
Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills (1976-1980) launched her exploration into identity by taking on different disguises to say something about society as a whole, and make statements on female stereotypes in a male-dominated world. Regarding her recent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Sherman states,
When I was starting my stuff, I felt completely isolated from traditional photography, I felt like an outcast, not just from the photography world but even from the art world, which was all about painting and sculpture back then – mostly male painting and sculpture. That’s why a lot of women from my generation tried to find new directions to go in.
Sherman’s direction takes on different identities in photography to make a variety of comments on society and culture.
Her 1981 “Centerfolds” series shows a variety of women in different emotional states – terrified, heartbroken, and melancholic – and makes statements on perceived typical feminine states. Sherman wants the audience to view the images as though they were photographed by a male photographer, as opposed to being taken by her. These images portray the women as being vulnerable and more accessible to the lens as though enjoying the attention the drama of the emotional states arouses. The emotions that her identities take on in this series are more delicate, vulnerable, and weak, as though women tend to act this way more when looked at through the male gaze. With her exploration into color photography in the 80’s, Sherman began using studio backdrop perceptions to change and control the scenery. The use of backdrop to control the scenes remains present in her work from the 1980s to later prints in the early 2000s and her clown photos in 2008. From her early Untitled Film Series, to her later High Society Series, Sherman’s true self remains a mystery, but her statements on identity resonate throughout all of her work. Although Sherman’s photos do not explore her own identity per se, her exploration of different identities and issues of femininity and societal stereotypes with her photography is brilliant, passionate, and genius. Cindy Sherman stands as one of the most important contemporary artists working today.
Works Cited: Bright, Susan - Auto Focus.
Sischy, Ingrid. “The Artists’s Studio: Cindy Sherman.” Vanity Fair
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megan.elizabeth
Thoughts on Cindy Sherman:
Cindy Sherman began exploring self-portraits in the 1970s with her Untitled Film Stills. Her photographstake control of representation through self-portraiture by using herself as subject to make statements to her audience. During this postmodern period of the 1970s and 1980s, there was a rise of identity theory through which self-portraits became a significant tool for exploration.
Artists increasingly turned to photography to express their identities in terms of race, gender and sexuality, often using their own bodies as perfect instruments to draw attention to those who had been traditionally overlooked in the predominantly white, middle-class, male canon of the Western art world.
Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills (1976-1980) launched her exploration into identity by taking on different disguises to say something about society as a whole, and make statements on female stereotypes in a male-dominated world. Regarding her recent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Sherman states,
When I was starting my stuff, I felt completely isolated from traditional photography, I felt like an outcast, not just from the photography world but even from the art world, which was all about painting and sculpture back then – mostly male painting and sculpture. That’s why a lot of women from my generation tried to find new directions to go in.
Sherman’s direction takes on different identities in photography to make a variety of comments on society and culture.
Her 1981 “Centerfolds” series shows a variety of women in different emotional states – terrified, heartbroken, and melancholic – and makes statements on perceived typical feminine states. Sherman wants the audience to view the images as though they were photographed by a male photographer, as opposed to being taken by her. These images portray the women as being vulnerable and more accessible to the lens as though enjoying the attention the drama of the emotional states arouses. The emotions that her identities take on in this series are more delicate, vulnerable, and weak, as though women tend to act this way more when looked at through the male gaze. With her exploration into color photography in the 80’s, Sherman began using studio backdrop perceptions to change and control the scenery. The use of backdrop to control the scenes remains present in her work from the 1980s to later prints in the early 2000s and her clown photos in 2008. From her early Untitled Film Series, to her later High Society Series, Sherman’s true self remains a mystery, but her statements on identity resonate throughout all of her work. Although Sherman’s photos do not explore her own identity per se, her exploration of different identities and issues of femininity and societal stereotypes with her photography is brilliant, passionate, and genius. Cindy Sherman stands as one of the most important contemporary artists working today.
Works Cited: Bright, Susan - Auto Focus
Sischy, Ingrid - “The Artist’s Studio: Cindy Sherman.” Vanity Fair.
Thoughts on Claude Cahun:
Cahun was born Lucie Schwob in 1893 and changed her name to the more androgynous Claude in 1918. Cahun was one of a few women to be active in the Surrealist movement of the 1920s and 1930s. Most of her self-portraits are from the late 1920s and early 1930s, many of which include her lover, Marcel Moore. Her self-portraits and photomontages address issues of the self, sexual identity, and gender roles. “Cahun proposes that the real self can never be revealed because it is performed – a role rather than a truth. Her lifelong interest in self-portraits investigated the slippage between self and other. Cahun’s androgynous name change, conversial poems, masculine appearance, and understanding of the artificiality of theatre have led to her being seen as a precursor of postmodern gender and identity theory.” (Bright, p.16). Cahun’s exploration of self and notions of not one true self were strong in her surreal self-portraits, multiple exposures, and photo- montages. There has been much debate in the past regarding Cahun’s work. It is stated that her identity became so blurred that many thought she was a man, “Lost to obscurity for decades, Cahun’s identity became so uncertain that for a time it was unclear whether she was male or female.” (Monahan, p. 125). It seems that until the 1980s Cahun’s work was lost in the art world. Since then there have been many comparisons to her self-portraits with those of Cindy Sherman’s. Like Sherman, who will be discussed in more detail later, Cahun took on different identities within her art. With a shaved head and dressed as a man, Cahun questioned the norm of gender roles and sexual identity. Through her self-portraits she makes us question the self, our sexuality and inherent masculine/feminine traits that live within all of us. She remains an important artist in the Surrealist movement and within feminine and lesbian culture in art from the 1920s. Cahun’s questions of self and gender remain relevant leading into the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement and still today.
Susan Bright’s book, Auto Focus: The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography is an excellent break down of themes of self-portraits into five categories: Autobiography, Masquerade, The Body, Studio and Album, and Performance. This book is a lot of what I’m basing my thesis on and has given me insights in analyzing work and choosing the photographers for my exhibition, which I will announce here soon! Read the attached interview to hear Bright’s explanation of the five sub-categories of self-portraiture!
Maya Deren
At Land, 1944
Maya Deren was an avant-garde film-maker of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Like Cahun, Deren was interested in Surrealist art and notions of identity and self. At Land was written, directed and stars Deren. The film serves as a self-portrait for the multi-media artist and she is quoted as saying that the film is a “mythological voyage of the twentieth century,” in which “the problem of the individual as the sole continuous element, is to relate herself to a fluid, apparently incoherent, universe.”
Catherine Opie
Self-Portrait, 1993
Self-Portrait/Pervert, 1994
Self-Portrait Nursing, 2004
http://www.curvemag.com/Curve-Magazine/Web-Articles-2012/The-Eyes-of-Catherine-Opie/
Flyer for the exhibition opening. The exhibit is site-specific to the Rea Coffeehouse which is no longer running as a venue. Viewing Rea as a self-portrait of Chatham, I hope to raise awareness about the space in order to get it running as an art gallery on Chatham’s campus once more. The exhibit will be a photography installation celebrating women, self-exploration, and the rich history behind self-portraits and Rea Coffee House.
Here is the link for a project I started for my senior thesis in Arts Management with a focus in Photography. Herself in Time explores women self-photography through history, looks at different theories regarding self-portraits, and strives to hear the driving impulse from many women photographers exploring self-portraits today.
Please click the link and follow the blog for more information.