Between 1977 and 1980, Sherman photographed herself in a series of sixty-seven staged scenarios meant to suggest Hollywood films of the 1950s, such as this Hitchcockian "career girl" alone on the streets of the big city. In each picture, the artist foregrounds the elements of cinematic form—from gaze and camera angle to lighting, costume, and backdrop—that trigger the stock narratives and characters from which our identities are composed.

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