Cindy Sherman and identity

 

 Judgmental old lady by Aida Deleg

 What these images represent and how they act as self portraits:

I was inspired by Cindy Sherman, Untitled #474, 2008 which is an image of a a rich, stoic, older woman who has been forced to keep up with harmful beauty standards. I was thinking of how some viewers would see her image and judge it with statements like "why is this old lady trying to look young" or "she looks ridiculous and should act her age." I wanted to portray these people as a judgmental close minded elder who is always ready to give her opinions on anyone who passes by her. She whispers loudly and cares little of how her words may negatively affect someone. When she is confronted she acts shocked and denies ever saying anything that goes over the line. However, this elder is like this because she was also surrounded by overly critical people. Maybe we all have a judgmental side to us even if it is unconsciously due to our environment. There is a difference between constructive criticism and hateful commentary. You may ask why I portrayed the image of an older person and not a younger person, to that I say its based on my memory and a collection of stories I have of older people who are rude. Also, who doesn't know the glaring eyes or disapproving eyes your mom gave you when you were a mischievous child. Certain habits and gestures are passed from grandparent to parent to child.

"A number of younger artists are very much indebted to Sherman in their exploration of not just identity but also the nature of representation. Now we all take it for granted that a photograph can be Photoshopped. We live in the era of YouTube fame and reality-TV shows and makeovers, where you can be anything you want to be any minute of the day, and artists are responding to that. Cindy was one of the first to explore the idea of the malleability or fluidity of identity.”

-quote from The Cindy Sherman Effect by Phoebe Hoban, 3rd paragraph 

I think when a person is in front of the camera they are not their everyday self. The camera is just an extended human eye lens which we look at and immediately act differently. Most of the time we unconsciously or consciously thinking about how others might perceive us or how someone else looks. The identity is based on the surrounding environment or what we choose to surrounds ourselves in. We are always observing, and we start imitating at a young age and that doesn't seem to stop even when we are grown. The identity continues to change and is built upon, its fluid.

“I think it has made me realize that we’ve all chosen who we are in terms of how we want the world to see us,” . . .

-quote from The Cindy Sherman Effect by Phoebe Hoban, 28th paragraph

We are aware of each other so it seems that we all choose an identity(ies) that meld with certain groups or worlds. Sherman says "world" but I feel like we all have different ideas of the world so it should be worlds. Identities form groups and follow like sheep. Some people have a rough time either forming an identity or accepting their identity.