Centerfolds: a black box

Cindy Sherman's Centerfolds series was a collection of 12 photographs created in 1981. Their horizontal format is meant to refer to the centerfolds in men's erotic magazines.  "I did want to make people feel uncomfortable," Sherman said.

I first saw one of these photographs when I was around 15. When we were asked to do a short creative assignment based on a photograph during my last year of college (no rules), I thought of Sherman's work. Shared here, edited slightly:

Day 4:

My father throws the catalog on my lap. "This month's issue!" he calls out. He disappears into the kitchen. 

"Woah," Tommy says. "You guys are subscribed? My dad would never." Eagerly, we put our heads together over the centerfolds and start flipping through. 

Screaming, screaming

Panting, crying, wailing

Euphoria

Cursing, drooling, licking, sobbing, grunting, writhing, dreaming, dying

A woman unfolds herself and picks at the corner of her page.

"You boys having fun?"

Tommy slams it shut and the screaming stops. He tosses it on the counter. "Eh, nothing good."

"Maybe next month," I say.

Another perspective:

My mother was born in a black box and I carry her now in the pit in my stomach

I was born in a white t-shirt and purple shorts and I wear them now in a black box

They have split half my body from me: my right kidney, thigh, and breast

Next week they'll they make. Father, father, father, Kronus swallowed all his children once

Mother, mother, mother, Rhea saved them

Nudity

Gratuity

A light shines through, it is so bright my eyes roll and I see even less than I did in the dark

Forgive me Father

Forgive me Father for I have sinned

I say it over and over until a hand reaches out

And touches my face,

my arm,

my thigh