Michelle Melendez, Not Your Doll

The selfie I took was inspired by Cindy sherman’s ideas and everything I read in the readings the professor gave. I was excited while reading about sherman’s work, especially when she utilizes a wide variety of makeup techniques, masks and prostheses to create a truly stunning and grotesque representation of the body. The collection has been described as moving towards "... the dark side of our collective fantasies, a place where the forces of polymorphous unbridled sexuality and violence are loose between the toys of the imagination." Sherman's collection of frames implies, quite obviously, an imaginary redirection of women in a society governed by men. Ever since photography became a new way of expression, it opens a range of plastic possibilities that makes it a further manifestation of contemporary art.

The art of photography has points of contact with painting and other plastic expressions. Photography uses light as an element of composition and as a dynamizing element of the image; Photography takes care, like painting, angles and axes of vision in his compositions. It plays with expressive elements, which sometimes have to do with the reproduced figure itself and sometimes with the own aesthetic resources of the image. In the series ‘Untitled’ Sherman personifies female stereotypes: the abandoned woman, the college girl, the lost woman, the prostitute, the manipulative, the beaten. In this project, the photographer will show in her series a great example of social image of the woman.

I created mine as the way men se woman in today’s society, as a doll, as a sex toy. Because of the way they dress, or how much makeup they have on. I'm not a doll and much less a collection. I am a girl not a sex toy. The way I look or dress should not define who am I. Men are capable of transforming women into objects just because of the way they look or dress. I decided to be a doll, more like a naked doll to represent the way men view women, when it should not be like that. Creating the makeup was the fun part and finding a way to take the selfie was even better, I was able to put objects together to be able to use the timer on my phone to take the picture. It’s incredible how much you can see in a picture and how much your imagination can run.
The Cindy Sherman effect inspired many people around the world to create their own pictures and use their imagination. The Cindy Sherman effect changed the way people view pictures and to see stories behind every picture. Sherman made pictures look like paintings and even better, her creations looked so realistic.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm