Remaining true to a method she pioneered in the late 1970s, she is both the model and the director of the scene. She took this photograph in her studio before superimposing it onto a digitally retouched image, a technique she used in 2008 for works in which the issue of ageing became central – notably here, the wrinkles on the neck betray an age at odds with the figure’s overall appearance.
This work is remarkable in two respects:
The artist portrays a man. This cross-dressing is very rare in Sherman’s work and resonates here with current debates on gender. She portrays a dandy who is as stoic as he is ethereal.
In addition to a Stella McCartney overcoat, the artist wears a T-shirt featuring a reproduction of one of her 1980 works. In it, she embodies one of her most famous ‘roles’: the Hitchcockian blonde. The garment was designed and marketed by Jun Takashi (Undercover), but the artist reappropriates it in a mise en abyme that allows her to bring together two portraits, two identities, within the same image.
