The inaugural Photo Vogue Festival is celebrating the next generation of talented female fashion photographers, those who have subverted the traditional power male / female dynamic and liberated women from prescribed identities – the madonna, the whore.

Over three exhibitions in Milan, the female body is celebrated and examined in mysterious, alluring and mystical images from names such as Vanessa Beecroft, Petra Collins and Cindy Sherman. Beecroft’s work is exhibited in a stand-alone show that includes work from 1993 – 2016. In ‘The Female Gaze’ a host of dynamic artists are displayed together, creating a powerful rallying cry to a new era of fashion photography that empowers and enables women on both sides of the lens. The third exhibition, PhotoVogue/inFashion showcases the new talent who were brought together as part of the Photo Vogue competition. Conceived and curated by Vogue Italia, the festival also incorporates talks and lectures.

Photo Vogue Festival takes place in Milan, Italy, on November 22-26.

Tags: Cindy Sherman, feminist, Petra Collins, Photo Vogue, Vogue Italia

The metamorphoses of Cindy Sherman knows no boundaries, so it makes sense that an exhibition honouring her work is in a place as vast and all-encompassing as the Museum of Modern Art gallery in New York.

Looking back at her three decades and counting career, the just opened showcase contains over 170 of Sherman’s iconic pieces and portraits, witnessing her take on roles from cinema noir actress to Jean Fouquet’s Madonna of Melun. But Sherman’s countless transformations are beyond pure dress up and trying on a new persona; they are a deep questioning of identity, representation and the role and placement of women in society.

Rather than being solely retrospective, the exhibit is also the first showing of Sherman’s photographic murals from 2010 in America, as well as Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman, a screening of films made and curated by the conceptual artist, which is fitting considering the strong influence of the medium on her work. The movies will range from horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to John Waters’ Desperate Living, whilst including Sherman’s short film Doll Clothes and feature film Office Killer.

The extensive display of her work shows that even under wigs, prosthetics and layers of makeup, the real Cindy Sherman is always unmistakably there.

Cindy Sherman is on display until June 11 at The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, MoMA, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019
moma.org

Tags: Cindy Sherman, exhibition, film, John Waters, MOMA, photography

Since the Seventies artist Cindy Sherman has successfully used her own image as her canvas without revealing her true identity. Though the artist is her own sole subject, her photographs are a world away from atypical self-portraiture.

A consummate performer, over the years Sherman has cast herself across the gamut of female identities – from Playboy centrefold and clown, to ageing American socialite and B-movie star.

For her latest turn at Spruth Magers in London, Sherman’s image is again central, but hidden. This time under a fresh array of bizarre costumes and ridiculous personas. Departing from her usual framed photograph format, she has embraced digital techniques, casting her eccentric characters onto large toile style murals, reminiscent of French parlour wallpaper.

Sherman’s surreal universe is populated by dowdy middle-aged women with broken ankles, and naked female warriors whose comedic appearance is at odds with the bucolic backdrop. Disturbing AND funny. This show is not to be missed.

Cindy Sherman is at Spruth Magers London from 12 January- 19 February
spruethmagers.com

Tags: Cindy Sherman, Spruth Magers

Francesca Woodman took her first photograph aged 13. The self-portrait reveals a young woman bathed in light, with her face averted from the cameras’ gaze (below, top left). Despite her years, the image set the tone for the remainder of a brief, but brilliant photographic career.

Woodman studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1975 – 1979, producing a prolific body of work. A solitary figure in life and art, she was the frequent, lone subject of her images. Before her untimely death, when she jumped from a Manhattan high rise at the age of 22, Woodman generated an archive of 800 images. This week a number of them go on show at the Victoria Miro gallery in London, including rarely seen colour works. The exhibition is a taster of a major retrospective at San Francisco’s MoMA, which ultimately lands at the New York Guggenheim in 2012. Such mainstream recognition has taken time, though Woodman’s contemporary influence spans from Cindy Sherman to Nan Goldin. This is a show that doesn’t need to shout, it very quietly commands the attention.

Francesca Woodman is at the Victoria Miro until 22nd January 2011
Victoria Miro

All images: The Estate of Francesca Woodman, Courtesy George and Betty Woodman and Victoria Miro Gallery.

Tags: Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, nan goldin, Victoria Miro