Pre-Photo Shop Personality Split

Like its title suggests, "A Play of Selves" at Metro Pictures is a play, albeit one that is composed of photos. Created in 1975, Cindy Sherman's casts herself as all the archetypes within a person. Playfully identified as Vanity, Desire, Ideal Man, Narrator and so on, the characters challenge and comfort each other for five acts, amounting to about 50 or more scenes or photos. These montages are pre-Photo Shop, so Sherman photographed herself in each role and then literally cut and paste the images next to each other. A script is provided as guide to each scene, which is almost essential to figure out who wins and who loses in the battle of the selves. (Images via Metro Pictures gallery)