Who bought Sindy Sherman’s “Untitled 96”?

Kolya Katuninx
Jul 24, 2017 · 4 min read

One of my favorite artworks is Sindy Sherman’s photo called “Untitled 96”. Once I saw it in some vk-album. There were a lot of someone’s random saved photos. They were absolutely different. I was looking at them and suddenly stumbled upon one. It was a very strange photo. It showed a girl lying on the floor. The girl wasn’t looking at the viewers; she was looking in a different direction. She seemed absent as if she was pondering on something. There was a piece of paper in her hand. Not clear it was a letter or just a wrapper. At that moment I remembered a story.

Cindy Sherman (B. 1954) Untitled #96

When I was a child my parents used to forbid me to eat a lot of sweets. But I was naughty and tried to eat large quantities of sweets at every opportunity. So, candies, chocolate, cookies, all sweets they brought home were hidden from me. Of course, they gave me several candies for good behavior every day. But it was never enough for me. And I was constantly looking for sweet all over the house. There were plenty of places to hide something. But I always found out all of them. Until one day my task became more difficult and I couldn’t get to sweets for a long time.

There was a drawer in father’s room and the small key to it. Parents put some sweets into the drawer and locked them in. Thus, to get the sweet I first had to get the key. Obviously, to hide a small key is easier thing than to hide a bag of candy. Eventually, you can always take a key and carry it around all the time. So, I had no hope that I’d ever get it. Once no one was at home. Looking for some book I suddenly saw the key between two books on the top shelf. It was accidentally. I was so excited and immediately dashed to father’s room where the drawer was. I unlocked it and saw the sack with chocolate candies there. I took only several candies so that mother or father wouldn’t notice that there were fewer candies in the sack. Then I locked the drawer and put the key back. I did all in hurry, because I was afraid that parents would suddenly show up and see how I finally could unlock the drawer. When I pulled that off I had three chocolate candies in my pack and joyfull thought in my mind that I finally knew where the key was hidden. So, I took my time to enjoy myself. I was doing all things very slowly. I slowly walked up the stairs in my room and locked myself there slowly turning the key. At that moment I somehow wanted to lie on the floor, but not on the bed. When I lay I suddenly saw another room. It seemed not to be my room. Or rather it was familiar and unfamiliar for me at the same time. Lying on the floor I saw many things, which I’d never seen before. And even very familiar stuff of my daily routine seemed strange at that moment. It was extremely exiting. I stood up, looked around my habitual room. Then I lay and all around me appeared unusual again.

I was laying on the floor, eating my candies and looking around the room with breathless interest. I was in my room and I wasn’t at the same time. So I found out the way to change ordinary place into a strange and unusual one or to take a fresh look at the boring things around. You should lay down on the floor and stare. If you’re angry, upset, confused and something is wrong in your life, you should lie down on the floor and stare. So you might see all things from newly and maybe look at your day, the situation or even life in a different way. And it really works. This is exactly what I thought at the moment I saw “Untitled 96”. I saw very weirdly familiar story in that photo. The girl in the photo was a teenager. And I was a teenager in my story.

As soon as I saw the photo I began googling some information about it. So I knew it was taken by Sindy Sherman. I started reading about her and my brows were raised.

It turned out that «Untitled 96» is one of the most expensive photos in the world. It costs $3.89 million and ranks third in top of List of most expensive photographs. Why is this so? It’s just one of many others photos by Sindy. She has some similar photography series such as «Untitled Film Still”, “Disasters”, “Sex pictures”. Everyone includes about 60 or 100 photos. Absolutely all the photos are untitled, just numbered and selfies in essence. But why is this photo the most expensive and one of the most popular? Who is that man bought it and paid the crazy price? And was it a man or woman? And why did they do that?

Is the photo assiciated with feeling from their childhood? And what if their story resembles to mine? It’s very interesting.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade