Meet Cindy Sherman: Artist, Photographer, Chameleon by Jan Greenberg (review)

This sounds like a dream come true: a little girl who loves dressing up, putting on make-up, play-acting, and taking pictures of herself in her mother's old clothes grows up to be a renowned artist who dresses up, puts on make-up, play acts, and takes pictures of herself in thrift-shop clothes. Certainly, as Greenberg and Jordan point out, there's a straight line between Cindy Sherman's childhood interests and ultimate career as one of the best-known and most challenging contemporary photographers, but behind the apparent playfulness of her work (with its dark as well as exuberant sides) is a strong undercurrent of social critique. Sherman is the model in her photographs, but she is never the subject. Whether she's a blonde loner standing at the side of a deserted road with her suitcase, a pensive brunette teen waiting for her old-school phone to ring, an androgynous, dirt-covered figure staring fixedly into space from a patch of moss, or an aging film has-been musing on better days, Sherman serves as a malleable image, a catalyst for stories that need to be filled in by the viewer. Although the text covers conventional biographical information, this title is more interested in interpretation of photos and Sherman's own commentary (culled from secondary sources) than her life statistics. Inset boxes with observations by adolescent viewers prompt discussion and encourage readers' own speculations. Notes, bibliography, and details of each referenced photograph will support report writers, and browsers captivated by Sherman's images may unexpectedly find themselves digging through the text for clues to these photographic mysteries.