Untitled Film Still 21, Cindy Sherman, 1978
Cindy Sherman the person has always been obscured by Cindy Sherman the subject. Through inventive, deliberately confusing self-portraits taken in familiar but artificial circumstances, Sherman introduced photography as postmodern performance art. From her Untitled Film Stills series, #21 (“City Girl”) calls to mind a frame from a B movie or an opening scene from a long-since-canceled television show. Rather than capture real life in the click of a shutter, Sherman uses photography as an artistic tool to deceive and captivate.