I recently got Susan Bright's impressively illustrated 'Art Photography Now' and had a flick through - the page on Cindy Sherman alone made it worth buying. Her family liked to tell her 'it doesn't take any brains to do what you do', which worried her, and she writes;
'I don't theorize when I work. I would read theoretical stuff about my work and think "What? Where did they get that?" The work was so intuitive for me, I didn't know where it was coming from. So I thought I had better not say anything or I'd blow it.'
'I don't theorize when I work. I would read theoretical stuff about my work and think "What? Where did they get that?" The work was so intuitive for me, I didn't know where it was coming from. So I thought I had better not say anything or I'd blow it.'
It's a good piece, and the part about 'summoning' characters in front of the camera resonates with me. The inevitable obsolescence of Cindy Sherman's (everyone's) work was something I was thinking over yesterday - in between watching telly, drinking tea, taking pictures and downing bars of Toffee Crisp (4 for a quid at the Co-op). Most photographer-artist's work becomes dated fairly quickly nowadays but so far she has not attracted any significant negative criticism to sweep her into history, she's still incredibly relevant. Seeing as how savvy up-and-coming critics make their reputation and establish themselves through questioning (and displacing) the old guard, reading this it struck me that when the first blow finally comes for Sherman maybe it will in fact be from her own hand.
This is beautiful.