Cindy Sherman is an American photographer, who’s work consists solely of self portraits, which she used to depict her own imagined characters, each with their own exaggerated and stereotypical features. Sherman’s work presents as a commentary on cultural stereotypes of women in media and society. Sherman herself states that “I think my work has often been about how women are portrayed in the media”.
Cindy Sherman, 2000 
Sherman’s work is bold, and the use of bright colours and the presentation of caricatures, in which Sherman creates a character and emphasizes all of their facial features in order to present a more cartoon-ish and extreme version of the stereotypes of a woman, meant to force the viewer to consider the influences and effects of stereotypes and expectations on women, and the way that women are presented in the media. Sherman claims that her desire to dress up and create characters out of herself was born from her anxiety about not being able to fit into her own family as a child, and the way she changed herself to fit what she believed her family wanted of her, she states, “I thought: if you don’t like me like this maybe you will like me like this? With curly hair? Or like this?”. Here, it is clear that her observation of being able to change ones self to suit the desire of those in society, began at a young age, and her desire to portray the way that media and society stereotypes women is a project that is personal to her.
The above image stands out immediately to viewers due to the bold colours. The bright background (meant to represent a sunset or sunrise) draws immediate attention of the viewer, and the positioning of the subject (Cindy) directly in front of the camera, making eye contact with the viewer allows the viewer to feel directly involved and part of the image. In the image, Cindy presents herself as an over the top example of a female tourist, with dark tan, heavy makeup and clearly visible tan lines. For this image, Cindy is accentuating the stereotypical features of a tourist women, and in doing so creates an almost satirical example of what society and the media portrays as a stereotypical female, while also forcing the viewer to recognise the fact that the image is a parody, and therefore challenge their view on women in the media.
Overall, Sherman’s work focuses heavily on drawing attention to the stereotypes of women in the media, and creates a parody of these stereotypes using her own imaginary characters, where she is able to form over exaggerated, almost disturbing versions of the stereotypes that women are often presented as. Sherman’s work is heavily influenced by personal identity, and the way that people display themselves to others while hiding their true self (a concept also found in the media), and Sherman was heavily influenced by her own experiences of wanting to alter her identity to fit her family, society and the worlds view on who and what she should be. A concept faced by many women throughout their lives.