Cindy Sherman, a prominent contemporary artist, has made her way to the frontlines of world-renowned photographers. Sherman’s most famous pieces, a series of black and white photographs, portray the divine separation of emotion, and the everyday lives of American women. 

Life

Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman grew up around the support of a family and a love for education. As the youngest of five children, her imaginative and creative personas sprouted since her youngest years, despite her family’s disinterest in the arts in which she loved. Her father, an engineer, and her mother, a reading teacher, both focused primarily on education, did not expose young Cindy Sherman to the art she loved. Instead, it became an individual interest.

When it came time, she enrolled at Buffalo State College under the visual arts department in the pursuit of painting and illustration. Most of her paintings were based around her own imaginative personas: illustrating herself as different characters with uncoordinated clothing and forming creative works. However, she got tired of the restrictions of painting and felt as though she “lacked the critical connection needed to proceed with painting.” Eventually, Sherman found her calling in photography and studied the subject for the rest of her time at Buffalo.

After graduation in 1976, Sherman moved out to New York to pursue her career in photography. Sherman first started out her career by taking photographs of herself, similar to her approach in painting, where she clothed herself in unfamiliar clothing and makeup in front of cityscapes. These 170 black and white pictures have become known as the Untitled film Stills, one of the most well-known series’ curated by a woman. To present day, Sherman has continued to explore photography and has since achieved international success. Her portrait-like images of herself have become the pinnacle of female photography and she continues her projects in New York City, where she resides.

Select Untitled Film Stills by Cindy Sherman

Gallery • 8 Photos

#56 by Cindy Sherman

Legacy

Since her first break into the photography world, Cindy Sherman has been able to maintain the spunkiness and creativity that burns within her. Her perspective on American women, specifically “B-movie actresses,” has sparked her international success and acknowledgment as a well-known photographer. Her pieces have sparked conversation about the representation of contemporary obsessions within the youth such as status and wealth while also maintaining themes of 1960 Hollywood and European films.

The male-dominant field of contemporary photography has been challenged by the imagination of Cindy Sherman, inspiring many young women to pursue their own dreams in the arts. Sherman lives out her legacy through her art and has since premiered her work in the Museum of Modern Art

Quote

“We’re all products of what we want to project to the world. Even people who don’t spend any time, or think they don’t, on prepare themselves for the world out there –  I think that ultimately they have for their whole lives groomed themselves to be a certain way, to present a face to the world.” -Cindy Sherman