The famous photographs that changed the world
From the political to the environmental, photography immortalises the transient and harnesses an unparalleled power to haunt eternal, inform change and trigger debate the world over.
In celebration of the new Photography Centre at the V&A, opening this October, we unpick the stories of 10 of the most famous photographs that have changed the world.
It was the Untitled Film Stills series that catapulted American artist Cindy Sherman to international fame. In this seminal series of 70 black and white self-portraits taken in New York in 1977, Sherman disguises herself, with costume and heavy make-up, and role plays.
We see her adopt a number of stereotypical female identities: the 1950s Hollywood movies star; the struggling supporting actress in film noir, B movies and European art-house films; the office girl; the girl on the run; and the housewife. Through role-play Sherman exploded the rigours of gendered identity and paved the way for other seminal feminist artists, including Renate Bertlmann.
