Cindy Sherman

The MOMA is currently showing an exhibition on American photographer Cindy Sherman. Her work spans more than 20 years. Her self-portraits are games and tricks to the eye. Not everything you see is real. Her first black and white pictures of supposedly actresses are all fake. She plays the roles of stereotypical women and takes an incognito picture. The result is astonishing. In the 80s she concentrated on her centerfold pieces, which tried to imitate Playboy celebrities. However, there is less erotic and more mystery in her pictures. She then focused on imitating portraits from the Renaissance and the Middle Ages; kings, Popes, royal families, artists, painters, etc. Her old-age women portraits are both whimsical, esthetic and fake. The prosthetic noses and breasts are evident and that is the way Sherman wants them to show. There is a sense of mockery in her work. She wants to fool, surprise and deceive her audience and achieves this wonderfully.