Cindy Sherman as Medusa, via johannab on Flickr
CAIRO – 5 August 2017: The publically released Instagram account of photographer Cindy Sherman, at over 590 images, appears to serve as a striking digital art gallery, raising the question as to whether the intention to release it publically is the artist's newest exhibition.
Long before the age of social media and the selfie craze, Sherman was redefining her self-image through the lens of her camera, as a critique of America's oppressive beauty standards and culture of sexist domination.
She explored the nature of gender role through creative usage of costumes and makeup, a way of confronting the gaze of the viewers and questioning the underlying motives behind the beauty industries.
Sherman's Instagram account serves as interesting case for the nature of her work. The content varies from candid photos of food and pets to extreme distortions of herself, through wigs, digital editing or extensively bizarre makeup usage.
In this regard, social media, with its trend to instant gratification and obsessive love of selfies and photographic records of every moment seems to be the ultimate environment for Sherman, a selfie queen long before the word even existed.
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