Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Cindy Sherman Inspired Portraits

So you think that your generation invented the selfie? Well, maybe you invented the word "selfie," but your generation is not the first to take photos of yourself. Your generation is not even the first generation to experience rapid technological advancements. Somehow, my generation blames your generation for our technological creations. Sorta funny.

My generation forgets that the photo booth was invented in the 1800's and popularized in the 1920's. We forget that photography transformed when the world changed between 1935-1945. My generation resembles older generations. We forget things.

I often hear old people like myself talk about the internet as if a new scary world has been created. All of a sudden, people can be fooled. Well, meet the new boss. It's the same as the old boss. (Oh, that's from an old person's song. Bing that.) Before the internet, people wore disguises. Some people lied. Few people told the truth all of the time.

... And then there was Cindy Sherman. She is still alive and possibly active. If you search Cindy Sherman in Google Images, you might think that you made a mistake. You will find about 40 different photos and they all look different. This means that you probably found her.

You will post 5 Cindy Sherman inspired self-portraits and 5 portraits of people in your group. You can borrow the hat in our room so that the photo looks like Penn's photo of Picasso (or see a photo I took of my daughter a few years ago). This project is due before Spring Break so check the calendar.

A few quick notes about how this fits with the previous projects. We just studied surrealists and abstract artists after taking portraits. For the last photo assignment, "Abstract Portraits," you photographed objects that represented people or yourself. This time you are photographing people who are intentionally not genuine. Are they characters? Perhaps. Push as far as you feel comfortable... maybe just a little farther, but be safe.


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