Widely recognised as one of the world’s leading art photographers, Cindy Sherman (b. 1954) has interrogated the visual codes of mass media and the construction of identity since her student days at Buffalo State College in the mid-1970s. Consistently using herself as a model across numerous photographic series, the American artist transforms her appearance through careful staging, makeup, costumes, masks and even elaborate prosthetics. Her celebrated series ‘Untitled Film Stills’ (1977-80), in which she presents herself as different archetypes from a range of imaginary films, adopts cinematic conventions to probe the male gaze and female objectification. Among the most memorable of the seventy black-and-white photographs is Untitled Film Still #21, in which a woman in business attire is surrounded by towering city buildings. Although the composition epitomises the archetypal independent working woman navigating a male-dominated environment, the character portrayed here exudes a certain vulnerability, as suggested by her awkward, sideways glance.