Lucy Hilmer – The Birthday Suits

E voltamos ao mundo maravilhoso da criatividade e ao infindável universo da Fotografia.

Lucy Hilmer fica muito melhor explicada por si própria, não precisa de outras apresentações. Ora vejam:

For 40 years, I’ve photographed myself on my birthday wearing nothing but my white Lollipop underpants, shoes and socks. I made my first Birthday Suit self-portrait in Death Valley, CA in 1974.

Without fail, I’ve faced my camera every April 22nd since then to create a coded history of one woman’s journey through time.

As a girl-child of the 1950s, I came of age before women’s lib, and wanted to buck the stereotypes of a culture that branded me a pretty girl, thin enough to be a fashion model and not much more. Armed with my camera and tripod, I found a way to define myself on my own terms in the most open, vulnerable way I could.

My long-term project will continue for as long as I live. In 2015, I turn 70. I’m currently working on a book & film about my Birthday Suits.

Lucy Hilmer

Lucy Hilmer (b. 1945, Washington, DC) is a San Francisco photographer, poet, and documentary filmmaker. She studied photography with Lisette Model, Larry Sultan, and Tom Baird at UC Extension in the early 1970’s, after working in NYC for Public Television and documentary films. In 1980, she began making TV documentaries with her husband, cinematographer Bob Elfstrom. She is now making books and films based on her multiple, long-term, photographic series-in-time.

Since 1973, the subjects of Hilmer’s autobiographical, B&W portraits and self-portraits have been family and friends. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, The Oakland Museum, Peter Palmquist’s Women In Photography International Archive at Beinecke Library, The Indie Photobook Library, and Getty Research Library. Recently, her “Birthday Suits” have been featured in Germany’s fotoMagazin and France’s 6Mois.

Cindy Sherman

Goste-se, ou não, do estilo, da pessoa ou da obra, Cindy Sherman é uma figura incontornável no panorama artistico contemporâneo.

“By turning the camera on herself, Cindy Sherman has built a name as one of the most respected photographers of the late twentieth century. Although, the majority of her photographs are pictures of her, however, these photographs are most definitely not self-portraits. Rather, Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for commentary on a variety of issues of the modern world: the role of the woman, the role of the artist and many more. It is through these ambiguous and eclectic photographs that Sherman has developed a distinct signature style. Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art.”

Fotógrafa, realizadora, autora, modelo, cabeleireira, maquilhadora, aderecista, encenadora, performer, tudo isto numa só pessoa, em simultâneo e em solitário.

O método de trabalho de Sherman é único, fotografando séries em que é o seu próprio modelo (mas em encenações elaboradas e conceptuais, muito para além de simples auto-retratos) em isolamento no seu estúdio. Cria rupturas, abre novos caminhos e marca novas tendências, o que a elevou ao estrelato da fotografia contemporânea. E ao sucesso comercial também, dado que os trabalhos de Sherman contam-se entre as fotografias com maior cotação de mercado, atingindo somas astronómicas na casa dos milhões de dólares.

Cindy transveste-se em dezenas, centenas de personagens, múltiplos esteriotipos de mulheres, ou até homens, sem nunca se revelar e sem nunca se (auto)fotografar como, na realidade, é. Segundo a própria, as mulheres que interpreta não são alter-egos de si mesma, mas sim a sua interpretação do modo como acha que os homens vêem as mulheres.

Entre as suas séries mais conhecidas estão Untitled Films Stills 1979-80, Rear Screen Projections 1980-81, Centerfolds or Horizontals 1980, Pink Robes 1982, Fashion 1981-84-93-94, Fairy Tales 1995, Disaster, 1986-89, History Portraits 1989-90, Sex Pictures, 1992, Horror and Pictures 1994-96.

“For a work of art to be considered a portrait, the artist must have intent to portray a specific, actual person. This can be communicated through such techniques as naming a specific person in the title of the work or creating an image in which the physical likeness leads to an emotional individuality unique to a specific person. While these criteria are not the only ways of connoting a portrait, they are just two examples of how Sherman carefully communicates to the viewer that these works are not meant to depict Cindy Sherman the person. By titling each of the photographs “Untitled”, as well as numbering them, Sherman depersonalizes the images.

There are also very few clues as to Sherman’s personality in the photographs – each one is so unique and ambiguous that the viewer is left with more confusion than clarity over Sherman’s true nature. Sherman completed the project three years later, in 1980, when she “ran out of clichés” with which to work. This series gave Sherman much publicity and critical acclaim; she had her first solo show at the nonprofit space, the Kitchen, in New York City. In 1980 Sherman also created a series of what she called “Rear-Screen Projections” in which, similarly to the Film Stills, Sherman dressed up and paraded against a projected slide background “

Vejam, não percam, a Exposição no MoMa, retrospectiva do percurso de Sherman. E se puderem ver ao vivo, melhor ainda, mas contem com a minha mais profunda e sincera inveja.

Numa nota mais mundana, Cindy tem, alegadamente, mantido, nos últimos anos, uma relação sentimental com David Byrne, esse mesmo, o dos Talking Heads.

All photos by Cindy Sherman
Quotes from Cindy Sherman’s website