CINDY SHERMAN (B. 1954)

"Around 1985, settings make a comeback in the photographs, but diffused into textures. Natural elements–pebbles, sand or soil, for instance–develop expressive and threatening connotations. Colour, lighting, and the texture of the figures themselves merge them visually into their settings. The camera angle now looks down onto the ground where the figures lie lifeless, or, perhaps, trapped in their own materiality."
—L. Mulvey, "A Phantasmagoria of the Female Body," in Cindy Sherman, exh. cat., Paris, Jeu de Paume, 2006, p. 293