Cindy Sherman (Born 1954)

Cynthia Morris Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.

In 2013 she received an honorary doctorate degree from the Royal College of Art, London. In 1972, Sherman enrolled in the visual arts department at Buffalo State College, where she began painting.

During this time, she began to explore the ideas which became a hallmark of her work: She dressed herself as different characters, cobbled together from thrift-store clothing. 

Frustrated with what she saw as the limitations of painting as a medium of art, she abandoned it and took up photography. She spent the remainder of her college education focused on photography.

Though Sherman had failed a required photography class as a freshman, she repeated the course with Barbara Jo Revelle, whom she credited with introducing her to conceptual art and other contemporary forms. At college she met Robert Longo, who encouraged her to record her process of “dolling up” for parties.

This was the beginning of her Untitled Film Still series. In 1974, together with Longo, Charles Clough and Nancy Dwyer, she created Hallwalls, an arts center intended as a space that would accommodate artists from diverse backgrounds.

Sherman was also exposed to the contemporary art exhibited at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the two Buffalo campuses of the SUNY school system, Media Studies Buffalo, and the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts, and Artpark, in nearby Lewiston, N.Y. It was in Buffalo that Sherman encountered the photo-based Conceptual works of artists Hannah Wilke, Eleanor Antin, and Adrian Piper. Along with artists like Laurie Simmons, Louise Lawler, and Barbara Kruger, Sherman is considered to be part of the Pictures Generation.