The selfie I took of me was inspired by the ideas I read in the reading, and by Cindy Sherman. After reading and watching the documentary of the artist and her work, it helped me become more creative and inspired me to become any character I want to be, too. Cindy Sherman's work is so astonishing and unique. I love the fact that all of her creations came out of her imagination, horror films, and from true life experiences. Also, I find it extremely cool and intriguing how she manages to take her own portraits by herself and how she has all these outfits and ideas to make these characters in her imagination come to live. Photography has always been a hobby of mine, so when I found out about this artist being a photographer and capturing images of her in different customes, etc, I was pretty excited to capture my very own selfie of me being disguised as someone else, too. In this selfie, I tried my best to disguise myself as a drag queen.
Cindy Sherman does a great job disguising herself in many different characters that I was inspired to disguise myself as a drag queen for my selfie. Cindy does not only do a great job dressing up as other characters, she also does a great job with the makeup she uses to make her looks happen. Her ability to apply makeup on her face the way it corresponds for her looks makes her an even more incredible artist. I like how this artist and I both have the same thing in common when it comes to movies. I am also a horror movie freak, so watching her work be inspired by horror movies really had me hooked. Cindy's characters being weird, horrifying, and different draws more attention to her work. As I was reading Susan Sontag's reading on photography, I was able to compare both artists. Both artists use their photography techniques to not only represent its object, but for it to be part of the object. Both artists both use photography for their knowledge, too. From what I understood from Susan Sontag's reading was that photography is a form of capturing reality. This ties to Cindy Sherman's work of art because Cindy uses her photography skills to capture the truths behind closed doors or what may seem or seemed "taboo". Cindy's socially critical photography has helped us see others' perspectives in life or in a situation or character.
Now, the reason why I chose to be a "drag queen" for my selfie was because it sounded like a fun idea and because I have always wanted to try a drag queen's make up look. Drag queens tend to have an over dramatic make up look and hairstyle. This started back then when gay men wanted to dress up like women. Obviously men did not know how to apply make up as good as a woman could. When they tried applying makeup it would most likely come out pretty messy or over done. Doing a drag queen's makeup wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. It took me time and patience, but it was pretty fun for the most part. My mom also helped me create this look by letting me drag her head down to make it look like I had "blonde-ish" hair (since I did not have a wig). After I was done applying the makeup, styling the hair, and taking the selfies, I went back to them and it was hard for me to believe that was me. It is incredible what photography and your imagination can do to your physical appearance. I felt like a complete different person but it was just a tad interesting to me. This selfie was inspired by Cindy Sherman's characters. Sometimes photography lies even when it is telling the truth and this relevant because it relates to us human beings and the world.
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm
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