Artwork Title: Cindy Sherman, Tabula Rasa

Cindy Sherman, Tabula Rasa, 1987

Abe Frajndlich

I first photographed Cindy Sherman in Akron, Ohio, where she had a show, in 1984. Carolyn Carr was the assistant director and arranged for access to her. In studying her work, I realized that Cindy is very shy, so I brought a little mask with me that she could hide behind. I made a picture of her in front of a tall color photograph that showed only her eyes through a white wig. Through that gesture, we got on the same frequency—we connected. About three years later when I was assigned to photograph her for Vanity Fair, she was very open. We had almost three days of shooting. The picture on the cover shows her with eyes closed and no make-up. She’s always putting on all these layers to hide behind. This is the tabula rasa image of Cindy. She has a bit of the quality of a Pierrot character.—Abe Frajndlich [https://www.featureshoot.com/2012/08/abe-frajndlich-on-photographing-cindy-sherman/]
Uploaded on Jan 2, 2018 by Suzan Hamer

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