Untitled (Under the WTC)

“Some of the women in the outdoor shots could be alone, or being watched or followed—the shots I would choose were always the ones in-between the action, these women are on their way to wherever the action is (or to their doom)… or have just come from a confrontation (or tryst).”

—Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman rose to prominence with her now-iconic series of works, the “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80), a series of photographs in which the artist captured herself enacting seemingly familiar pop culture clichés. This work, a variant of a negative from the “Untitled Film Stills,” shows how, at this critical early stage in her work, Sherman was already critiquing the construction of identity, whether in art, fame, and/or photography. As has been true throughout her career, Sherman drew attention to the artificiality and ambiguity of stereotypes and thus presents a much more complicated reality.