Material World

The clothes we wear aren’t just a sign of personal taste - they reflect our culture and our perceived place within it. When Cindy Sherman photographed herself as imaginary B-movie and film noir actresses for her Film Stills of the late 70s, she was toying with this notion, and since then the interaction between fashion, identity and society-at-large has been a frequent source of inspiration for artists and photographers including Barbara Kruger, Stan Douglas and, more recently, Mickalene Thomas and Yto Barrada. Today we celebrate images that engage with fashion’s cultural resonance, selected from the upcoming Third Triennial of Photography and Video at New York's International Centre of Photography.