exhibition at Glen Horowitz Booksellers at East Hampton, New York, together with another series from the same period, Murder Mystery People (1976/2000).
may/June
As is indicated by the title, the characters enacted by Sherman in Bus Riders were based on people she had observed on the bus. One of them is male; three are androgynous in appearance; five of them are black. While male characters also appear in Untitled A-D andMurder Mystery People (as well as in such later series as the History Portraits 1988-90), Sherman has not portrayed black characters in any other work. In each of the fifteen photographs the artist appears in a different outfit, wearing wigs, glasses and make-up according to the character being staged. Such props as a cigarette, a make-up mirror, a briefcase, a bulging paper bag or a book provide additional elements to the possible narratives evoked by each bus rider. All but one of the characters are seated, usually facing towards the camera, like people riding in a bus. In the last image Sherman stands, holding onto an imaginary rail above her. She used two different chairs and a high stool for variation. As in her earlier Untitled A-D series, the artist has allowed the theatricality of the characterisations to remain evident. The cable and sometimes the pump of her camera’s shutter release, set off by the pressure of her foot, are plainly visible on the floor. In several of the images shoes from a previous characterisation have been left casually on the floor near the chair and appear at the edge of the frame. An anonymous leg and shoe protrude,
no 98
Both series were reprinted in editions of twenty. Bus Riders and Murder Mystery People provide an important bridge between a series Sherman created as a student, Untitled A, B, C and D 1975 (Tate P11437-40), and her first major work, the Untitled Film Stills 197780 (Tate P11516-9). Like these other early series,Bus Riders may be seen as an exploration of portraiture and the mechanics of its staging.
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