In this first presentation of the artist's complete work, leading contemporary art historian Rosalind Krauss reviews Cindy Sherman's remarkable series of photographic works - in which the artist has notoriously assumed various roles, from B-movie starlet to Old Master model - and the enormous influence these works have had on feminist thinking and on current dialogues about the strategies of contemporary art in general. Almost perversely, Krauss argues, Sherman's unsettling attempts to dissect the formation and perception of images have turned her artworks - and herself - into icons for feminists' and others' agendas. Krauss explores in depth the various approaches to Sherman's work taken by philosophers and art historians and asks if they have not often lost sight of the imagery itself - or, more specifically, the way the images are constructed. In a further essay, Norman Bryson, internationally known for his pioneering theories on the semiotics of looking, explores Sherman's most recent, horror-show images of mannequins (known as the Sex Pictures) and identifies their place in her continued out-of-body investigations. Along with a bibliography and chronology, more than 200 illustrations (140 in color), including numerous unpublished works, represent Sherman's complete career to date.

"An in-depth look at the disturbing and abject sides of the American photo artist's oeuvre. Throughout her career, Cindy Sherman (*1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey) has been interested in the derailed and deviant sides of human nature, noticeable both in her selection of subject matter (fairytales, disasters, sex, horror, and surrealism) and in her disquieting interpretations of well-established photographic genres, such as film stills, fashion photography, and society portraiture. This richly illustrated publication seeks to highlight and acknowledge these aspects of her work based on selected examples and accompanied by texts by well-known authors, filmmakers, and artists who likewise deal with the grotesque, the uncanny, and the extraordinary in their artistic practice."--Publisher's website.

Published to accompany exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2/11/97 - 1/2/98; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 28/2/98 - 31/5/98.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition celebrating the Wagners' promised gift of more than 850 works of art to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Musaee national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, November 20, 2015-March 6, 2016, and at the Centre Pompidou, June 16, 2016-January 2017.

The study of photography has never been more important. A look at today's digital world reveals that a greater number of photographs are being taken each day than at any other moment in history. Countless photographs are disseminated instantly online and more and more photographic images are earning prominent positions and garnering record prices in the rarefied realm of top art galleries. Reflecting this dramatic increase in all things photographic, A Companion to Photography presents a comprehensive collection of original essays that explore a variety of key areas of current debate around the state of photography in the twenty-first century. Essays are grouped and organized in themed sections including photographic interpretation, markets, popular photography, documents, and fine art and provide comprehensive coverage of the subject. Representing a diversity of approaches, essays are written by both established and emerging photographers and scholars, as well as various experts in their respective areas. A Companion to Photography offers scholars and professional photographers alike an essential and up-to-date resource that brings the study of contemporary photography into clear focus.

"The first career survey to explore the full range of the artist's [Cindy Sherman's] photographic series through the critical lens of cinema. Featuring more than 130 illustrations, ... it explores the artist's use of cinematic artifice across almost 40 years of work." --back cover.

"For more than thirty years now, Cindy Sherman has been visualizing a whole gamut of role models and female identities. ... Contrary to popular belief, the famous Untitled Film Stills (1978-80) are not her earliest works, but rather those photographs she took as a student in Buffalo between 1975 and 1977. During those years, Sherman made playing with disguises her artistic concept, producing numerous previously unknown photographs that unite a striking number of theatrical elements. Using a variety of wigs, make-up, mimicry, gestures, expressions, and costumes, Sherman reveals different social identities by playing different roles. Gabriele Schor, director of the SAMMLUNG VERBUND, has performed a scholarly assessment of the conceptual beginnings of her oeuvre and is now publishing a catalogue raisonné of her early work."--Publisher description.