Early Work Of Cindy Sherman [Hardcover]

Edsel Williams (Author), Cindy Sherman (Photographer), The Glove Compartment (Author), AKA Gain Carlo Feleppa The Glove Compartment (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0965402037 | ISBN-13: 978-0965402033 | Publication Date: January 15, 2001

This volume contains two early photographic series--Bus Riders and Murder Mystery People--by Cindy Sherman, shot in 1976, soon after she graduated from art school. It is accompanied by a CD of found sound-based music by The Glove Compartment, aka Gian Carlo Feleppa.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cindy Sherman was born in 1954. She began her Film Stills series at the age of 23, gaining early recognition, and has followed it with remarkable experiments in color photography. Her art has won her wide recognition and praise, and been collected and exhibited by major museums throughout the world since 1980--key early shows included a first survey at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in 1982 and a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1987. Sherman is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and the Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Arts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Glenn Horowitz Bookseller (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965402037
• ISBN-13: 978-0965402033
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,524,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I Expected Better Design, Foreword, and Images; Recommend Serpentine Gallery Catalog Instead, March 29, 2006

By 

ReviewerWhoPrefersToBeAnonymous (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Early Work Of Cindy Sherman (Hardcover)

This slim book features two series of black-and-white self-portraits by the famous photographer Cindy Sherman: "Bus Riders" and "Murder Mystery People." Sherman took the photographs in 1976 (a year before she started her best-known series "Untitled Film Stills"), but they were printed only in 2000 for an exhibition at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton, New York.

Each photo is in portrait orientation, about 12x19cm in size on a 15x23cm page. All have the same white background and a similar lighting scheme (based on the shadows cast); all show a foot-activated remote shutter release cable on the wood floor; and all prove that Sherman had some skills with makeup, props, and photography early in her career.

"Bus Riders" consists of 15 untitled photos; using Amazon's "LOOK INSIDE!" feature you can see #1-#6. Sherman portrays various types of people you might find on public transit, like a guy with sunglasses and a briefcase. In all but the last image, Sherman is sitting on a chair; in five photos, she is made up to be black.

"Murder Mystery People" consists of 17 photos such as "the press" (also shown on the cover of the book), "the son (at funeral)," and "the actress (at murder scene)." "LOOK INSIDE!" shows only #17, "the drunken wife." Overall, I thought this series more successful than "Bus Riders" because it shows a greater variety of poses and outfits, because it evokes both laughter and sadness, and because it leads one to imagine a narrative that might fit the photos.

The back cover contains a CD, "The Cindy Sessions." This has 16 musical pieces by "The Glove Compartment, aka Gian Carlo Feleppa" that combine "found sounds" (like spoken snippets from answering machine messages and radio shows) with instrumentals. Examples of the song titles are "Stereophonic Nagging," "Barefoot Sound," and "Finally We Have No Hair." I'm unsure how to classify the music, but the word "weird" comes to mind, and I'm also unsure how to connect any of the pieces with Sherman's work.

Among the problems here: (1) The book design is uninspiring and uninviting. For example, what's with the UPC code on the red back cover? (2) The Foreword by Edsel Williams gives little information or insight. (3) The shots are apparently uncropped, but judicious cropping (especially in "Bus Riders") would have cut out extraneous background, shoes, etc. and focused attention on Sherman. (4) Finally, there is little reason to have this book if you have the catalog "Cindy Sherman" from the Serpentine Gallery (2003, with essay by Rochelle Steiner).*

If you are a Cindy Sherman fan, purchase this and other books by/about Sherman from Amazon.com!

* In specific, the Serpentine Gallery catalog has: (a) most of the photos from this book, although in a smaller size: "Bus Riders" photos 13 & 15, and all the "Murder Mystery People" photos (but with different numbering and in a different order); (b) a much better essay; (c) a composite photo of "Murder Mystery People" not in this book; (d) four close-up photos of Sherman's face from 1975, predating the photos in this book; (e) a lot of photos from more recent series by Sherman; and (f) a biography & bibliography.