NARRATOR: Throughout her career, Sherman has received numerous commissions from high fashion designers and magazines. Her photographs showcased their work while at the same time critiquing the fashion industry, feminine roles, and class as a whole.
Lucy Gallun, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
LUCY GALLUN: Sherman has done a number of commissions for the fashion industry throughout her career. This one was done in 1984, for French Vogue. She was given clothing from Comme Des Garcons, Issey Miyake, couture designers. It was a way to engage with this fashion world, to use these designer clothes in an interesting way, but also to allow her to make her own work.
This woman is bruised. She’s got makeup caked on. Her hair is messy, she's wearing this heavy coat. She’s slouching, and the folds of fabric are bunching up over her torso. These aren’t the things we expect in a normal fashion shot. She looks unhappy, sullen, there's something depressed about her. But at the same time, she’s wearing designer clothes. Sherman is looking at what kind of status these clothes have.
