InspiringQuotes

Cindy Sherman Quotes:

Cindy Sherman quotes

Ocupation: Photographer

Life: b. January 19, 1954

Birthday: January 19

famous quotes

I didn't want to make 'high' art, I had no interest in using paint, I wanted to find something that anyone could relate to without knowing about contemporary art. I wasn't thinking in terms of precious prints or archival quality; I didn't want the work to seem like a commodity.

Topics: Art, Thinking, Knowing, Cindy, High Art

I wanted to create something that people could relate to without having read a book about it beforehand.

source: - Cindy Sherman, Zdenek Felix, Elisabeth Bronfen, Martin Schwander, Deichtorhallen Hamburg (1995). “Cindy Sherman: photographic work 1975-1995”, Schirmer/Mosel

Topics: Art, Book, People

Everyone thinks these are self-portraits but they aren't meant to be. I just use myself as a model because I know I can push myself to extremes, make each shot as ugly or goofy or silly as possible.

Topics: Silly, Thinking, Self, Two Extremes, Self Portrait

I am always surprised at all the things people read into my photos, but it also amuse me. That may be because I have nothing specific in mind when I'm working. My intentions are neither feminist nor political. I try to put double or multiple meanings into my photos, which might give rise to a greater variety of interpretations…

Topics: People, Giving, Feminist, Multiple Meanings, Cindy

The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told.

Topics: Promise, Stories, Photographer, Cindy

I'm good at using my face as a canvas… I'll see a photograph of a character and try to copy them on to my face. I think I'm really observant, and thinking how a person is put together, seeing them on the street and noticing subtle things about them that make them who they are.

source: - "Cindy Sherman: Me, myself and I" by Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. January 14, 2011.

Topics: Character, Thinking, Trying

I feel I'm anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.

Topics: Self, Portraits, Looks, Self Portrait, Self Portrait Photography

I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colorful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you're looking at is something totally opposite. It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It's more challenging to look at the other side.

Topics: Distance, Opposites, Ideas

My dad was such a bigot. He was a horrible, self-centred person. He was really racist and he'd talk about the Jews and blacks and Catholics even

Topics: Dad, Self, Catholic

I think I always resented the fact that people thought I was trying to entertain them with my multifaceted, chameleonlike character changes. Although I liked doing that, I wasn't out to fool people and say 'Guess which one is me.'

Topics: Character, Thinking, People, Character Change

I want[ed] to make a show of really big pictures, because you see male artists doing it all the time. It just seemed like such a big egotistical thing. I thought, 'I don't know that many women that really do that.... Damn it, I'm gonna do that-make this really big picture.'

Topics: Artist, Males, Want

I can't work without it [music]. And it has to be the right kind, because if it's not then I get into a bad mood. I work with a remote so that I can change CDs instantly if I need to.

Topics: Cds, Needs, Bad Mood

I was feeling guilty in the beginning; it was frustrating to be successful when a lot of my friends weren't. Also, I was constantly being reminded of that by people in my family making jokes.

Topics: Successful, People, Feelings, Feeling Guilty

Some people have told me they remember the film that one of my images is derived from, but in fact I had no film in mind at all.

Topics: People, Mind, Facts

My ideas are not developed before I actually do the pieces.

Topics: Ideas, Pieces, Photographer

One reason I was interested in photography was to get away from the preciousness of the art object.

Topics: Photography, Art, Photographer, Cindy

We're all products of what we want to project to the world. Even people who don't spend any time, or think they don't, on preparing themselves for the world out there - I think that ultimately they have for their whole lives groomed themselves to be a certain way, to present a face to the world.

Topics: Thinking, People, Faces, Cindy

Inconsiderate, rude behavior drives me nuts. And I guess the inconsiderate rudeness of social ineptitude definitely fuels my work.

Topics: Nuts, Rude, Fuel, Ineptitude, Inconsiderate

I was supporting myself, but nothing like the guy painters, as I refer to them. I always resented that actually.. we were all getting the same amount of press, but they were going gangbusters with sales.

Topics: Guy, Painter

Every time you have to come up with a new body of work for a new show, you're aware that people are just ready to rip you apart, they're just waiting for you to fall or make the slightest trip up.

Topics: Rip, Fall, People, Waiting For You

Dreamers are those who have achieved in love and life, because it is a dream that got them there.

Topics: Love, Dream, Life And Love

People think because it's photography it's not worth as much, and because it's a woman artist, you're still not getting as much - there's still definitely that happening. I'm still really competitive when it comes to, I guess, the male painters and male artists. I still think that's really unfair.

Topics: Photography, Artist, Thinking, Woman Artist

The work is what it is and hopefully it's seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I'm not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff.

source: - "Studio: Cindy Sherman". Interview with Betsy Berne, www.tate.org.uk. June 1, 2003.

Topics: Bullshit, Feminist, Stuff, Cindy, Feminist Art

I didn't think of what I was doing as political. To me it was a way to make the best out of what I liked to do privately, which was to dress up.

Topics: Thinking, Political, Dresses, Cindy

I don't analyze what I'm doing. I've read convincing interpretations of my work, and sometimes I've noticed something that I wasn't aware of, but I think, at this point, people read into my work out of habit. Or I'm just very, very smart.

Topics: Smart, Thinking, People

I was meticulously copying other art and then I realized I could just use a camera and put my time into an idea instead.

Topics: Art, Ideas, Cameras

I didn't have any interest in traditional art.

Topics: Art, Interest, Cindy

I am fine, though it is hard to think of what kind of work to make at this point, other than decorative, escapist or abstract. I suppose I'll explore one or all of these things.

Topics: Thinking, Kind, Exploration, Escapists

I’m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than me.

source: - Cindy Sherman, Marianne Stockebrand, Westfälischer Kunstverein (1985). “Photographien”

Topics: People, Trying

Nowadays, with digital printing, it's so easy to make everything perfect, which is not always a good idea. Sometimes the mistakes are really what make a piece.

source: - "It Began with Madame de Pompadour". Interview with Susan Sollin, art21.org. July 2013.

Topics: Photography, Art, Mistake

If I knew what the picture was going to be like I wouldn’t make it. It was almost like it was made already – the challenge is more about trying to make what you can’t think of.

source: - "Studio: Cindy Sherman". Interview with Betsy Berne, www.tate.org.uk. June 1, 2003.

Topics: Thinking, Challenges, Trying, Cindy

I can be fearlessly strong at times to protect an inner frailty.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Strong, Protect

Being able to make a living doing something one truly loves to do - is my definition of success.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

My message for people to not take anything for granted, to respect what they might not understand.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: People, Granted

Early in my career, a critic said that I needed to "explain" the irony in my work, suggesting that I needed to add text next to the images to help people understand what I was trying to say. At first I was dismayed that I wasn't making work with a clear enough message. That's when I realized that that was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do - that I wasn't responsible for a misinterpretation of my work, that there should be some ambiguity to it. They either got it, or they didn't.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Opposites, Careers, People, Misinterpretation, Dismayed

[My work is] maybe about me maybe not wanting to be me and wanting to be all these other characters. Or at least try them on.

Topics: Character, Trying, Cindy

The way I see it, as soon as I make a piece I’ve lost control of it.

Topics: Pieces, Way, Photographer, Cindy

So many things suddenly made sense for the clowns, for the whole idea. I’d been going through a struggle, particularly after 9/11; I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say. I still wanted the work to be the same kind of mixture – intense, with a nasty side or an ugly side, but also with a real pathos about the characters – and clowns have an underlying sense of sadness while they’re trying to cheer people up. Clowns are sad, but they’re also psychotically, hysterically happy.

Topics: Cheer, Real, Struggle

I’m really just using the mirror to summon something I don’t even know until I see it.

source: - "Studio: Cindy Sherman". Interview with Betsy Berne, www.tate.org.uk. June 1, 2003.

Topics: Mirrors, Photographer, Knows

In horror stories or in fairy tales, the fascination with the morbid is also, at least for me, a way to prepare for the unthinkable… That’s why it’s very important for me to show the artificiality of it all, because the real horrors of the world are unmatchable, and they’re too profound. It’s much easier to absorb – to be entertained by it, but also to let it affect you psychologically – if it’s done in a fake, humorous, artificial way.

Topics: Real, Humorous, Horror Stories, Artificiality

I don't think I can see the world through other people's eyes, but I can capture an attitude or a look that makes others think I can. I have an appreciation for why people choose to look the way they do. But I can't know what they experience.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Appreciation, Attitude, Eye

People are always trying to find the next groovy thing, and it hasn't gone back to painting... I'd like it to go back to painting. I'm sick of all this photography and video. There's so much of it, it's almost annoying.

Topics: Groovy

Related Authors

A.M. Homes quotes

A.M. Homes
Ai Weiwei quotes

Ai Weiwei
Alex Prager quotes

Alex Prager
Alexis Hunter quotes

Alexis Hunter
Alfred Stieglitz quotes

Alfred Stieglitz
Ana Mendieta quotes

Ana Mendieta
Andrea Zittel quotes

Andrea Zittel
Andreas Gursky quotes

Andreas Gursky
Andres Serrano quotes

Andres Serrano
Annie Leibovitz quotes

Annie Leibovitz
Arlene Raven quotes

Arlene Raven
Ashley Bickerton quotes

Ashley Bickerton
August Sander quotes

August Sander
Augusto De Luca quotes

Augusto De Luca
Barbara Kruger quotes

Barbara Kruger
Berenice Abbott quotes

Berenice Abbott
Billy Childish quotes

Billy Childish
Bruce Nauman quotes

Bruce Nauman
Carolee Schneemann quotes

Carolee Schneemann
Carrie Mae Weems quotes

Carrie Mae Weems
Catherine Opie quotes

Catherine Opie
Christian Boltanski quotes

Christian Boltanski
Chuck Close quotes

Chuck Close
Claude Cahun quotes

Claude Cahun
Collier Schorr quotes

Collier Schorr
David Byrne quotes

David Byrne
David LaChapelle quotes

David LaChapelle
David Salle quotes

David Salle
Diane Arbus quotes

Diane Arbus
Dom Perignon quotes

Dom Perignon
Duane Michals quotes

Duane Michals
Edward Ruscha quotes

Edward Ruscha
Edward Steichen quotes

Edward Steichen
Eleanor Antin quotes

Eleanor Antin
Eli Broad quotes

Eli Broad
Elinor Carucci quotes

Elinor Carucci
Elizabeth Peyton quotes

Elizabeth Peyton
Eric Fischl quotes

Eric Fischl
Francesca Woodman quotes

Francesca Woodman
Gerhard quotes

Gerhard
Gerhard Richter quotes

Gerhard Richter
Gregory Crewdson quotes

Gregory Crewdson
Hans Bellmer quotes

Hans Bellmer
Hiroshi Sugimoto quotes

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Jack Smith quotes

Jack Smith
Janine Antoni quotes

Janine Antoni
Jeff Koons quotes

Jeff Koons
Jeff Wall quotes

Jeff Wall
Jenny Holzer quotes

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Saville quotes

Jenny Saville
Jerry Harrison quotes

Jerry Harrison
Jock Sturges quotes

Jock Sturges
Joel-Peter Witkin quotes

Joel-Peter Witkin
John Baldessari quotes

John Baldessari
Judy Chicago quotes

Judy Chicago
Julia Margaret Cameron quotes

Julia Margaret Cameron
Kara Walker quotes

Kara Walker
Kiki Smith quotes

Kiki Smith
Laura Mulvey quotes

Laura Mulvey
Lee Friedlander quotes

Lee Friedlander
Louise Bourgeois quotes

Louise Bourgeois
Lucas Samaras quotes

Lucas Samaras
Lynda Benglis quotes

Lynda Benglis
Magdalena Abakanowicz quotes

Magdalena Abakanowicz
Marilyn Minter quotes

Marilyn Minter
Marina Abramovic quotes

Marina Abramovic
Mark Powell quotes

Mark Powell
Marlene Dumas quotes

Marlene Dumas
Martha Rosler quotes

Martha Rosler
Mat Collishaw quotes

Mat Collishaw
Maya Lin quotes

Maya Lin
Miriam Schapiro quotes

Miriam Schapiro
Nan Goldin quotes

Nan Goldin
Nancy Spero quotes

Nancy Spero
Patricia Piccinini quotes

Patricia Piccinini
Peter Lik quotes

Peter Lik
Pipilotti Rist quotes

Pipilotti Rist
Rei Kawakubo quotes

Rei Kawakubo
Richard Prince quotes

Richard Prince
Robert Gober quotes

Robert Gober
Robert Heinecken quotes

Robert Heinecken
Robert Longo quotes

Robert Longo
Robert Mapplethorpe quotes

Robert Mapplethorpe
Sally Mann quotes

Sally Mann
Sherrie Levine quotes

Sherrie Levine
Shirin Neshat quotes

Shirin Neshat
Suzanne Lacy quotes

Suzanne Lacy
Takashi Murakami quotes

Takashi Murakami
Taryn Simon quotes

Taryn Simon
Tom of Finland quotes

Tom of Finland
Tracey Emin quotes

Tracey Emin
Vik Muniz quotes

Vik Muniz
William Eggleston quotes

William Eggleston
William Wegman quotes

William Wegman
Yasumasa Morimura quotes

Yasumasa Morimura
Yue Minjun quotes

Yue Minjun
Zuoxiao Zuzhou quotes

Zuoxiao Zuzhou
Adrian Piper quotes

Adrian Piper
Annette Messager quotes

Annette Messager
Bernd Becher quotes

Bernd Becher
Candida Hofer quotes

Candida Hofer
Elliott Hundley quotes

Elliott Hundley
Gillian Wearing quotes

Gillian Wearing
John Coplans quotes

John Coplans
Kehinde Wiley quotes

Kehinde Wiley
Larry Sultan quotes

Larry Sultan
Laurie Simmons quotes

Laurie Simmons
Lisa Yuskavage quotes

Lisa Yuskavage
Loretta Lux quotes

Loretta Lux
Lorna Simpson quotes

Lorna Simpson
Malick Sidibe quotes

Malick Sidibe
Maria Cornejo quotes

Maria Cornejo
Mariko Mori quotes

Mariko Mori
Michel Auder quotes

Michel Auder
Nancy Burson quotes

Nancy Burson
Nikki S. Lee quotes

Nikki S. Lee
Orlan quotes

Orlan
Philip-Lorca diCorcia quotes

Philip-Lorca diCorcia
Ralph Eugene Meatyard quotes

Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Rineke Dijkstra quotes

Rineke Dijkstra
Roselee Goldberg quotes

Roselee Goldberg
Sandy Skoglund quotes

Sandy Skoglund
Sophie Calle quotes

Sophie Calle
Thomas Demand quotes

Thomas Demand
Thomas Ruff quotes

Thomas Ruff
Thomas Struth quotes

Thomas Struth
Tina Barney quotes

Tina Barney
Tracey Moffatt quotes

Tracey Moffatt
Uta Barth quotes

Uta Barth
Valie Export quotes

Valie Export
Wolfgang Tillmans quotes

Wolfgang Tillmans

Authors starting with Letter

Topics starting with Letter