Untitled #88

Cindy Sherman’s staged photographs explore the pervasive effects of mass-media images on individual identities. Since the late 1970s, the artist has served as both photographer and model for a large cast of fictional personalities created primarily through costume, hair, makeup, and lighting. In 1981 she began a series of large color photographs that mimic the horizontal format of a magazine centerfold. Critiques of these glossy spreads, Sherman’s representations are fraught with anxiety, vulnerability, and longing. In Untitled #88, she depicted herself as a young, disheveled blonde girl; her fragility and isolation are underscored by her huddled body language and pensive stare. An imposing darkness surrounds her, except for the warm glow from what is most likely a fire, the only source of light in the picture. While the girl’s specific situation remains ambiguous, the photograph illustrates that, for Sherman, gender roles are performative.