Photography in Context: Identity

In her fashion series of 1983-1984 Cindy Sherman explores the conditions underlying the depiction of women, and questions the conventional ideal of beauty through a use of exaggerations and reversals. “I don’t do self-portraits. I always try to get as far away from myself as possible in the photographs…” this statement poses a serious challenge to art and cultural critics; if it isn’t Sherman herself then who is the women depicted throughout the series?

My attention was really drawn to this statement after reading it, as to why she doesn’t want to create self-portraits yet uses her own body, distorted by costumes, make-up and props. The woman we see depicted withdraws herself from the world, finds refuge in her own room and impersonates different identities. Thus to me implying she felt her identity was not strong enough to deal with the urban violence in New York City in which she felt threatened and alienated within her own family. To reduce the threat she learnt to transform her identity, creating a brave persona in which she then photographed, forming this body of work.

It seems inevitable that Sherman created her own version of a fashion spread; she started to study her own face continually from different angles until she became unfamiliar with it. She disguised herself by dressing up in different costumes until her figure became that of a stranger when she saw the reflection of herself in the mirror. Her portraits articulate her sense of dissatisfaction with the expectations of cultural femininity.

A feeling of sorrow and loneliness is created within this body of work. The fact she changes her identity to feel comfortable, firstly doing this in her own bedroom and then bravely moving to do so in her studio. “People are going to look under the make-up and wigs for that common denominator, the recognizable. I’m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than me”. Whether the purpose is to supplement a narrative or reshape a fantasy theme, trigging the memories the viewers is something that is clearly intended by the work of Cindy Sherman.