Debatably the most famous living art photographer, Cindy Sherman makes lots of money playing dress-up for her self-portraits.

Long Island native Sherman went to college at SUNY Buffalo, where she says she failed her first photography class after having trouble figuring out how to use a camera. She soldiered on and eventually passed the class, and moved to the city in the mid-'70s after graduation. Sherman caused an art-world ruckus in the early 1980s with her series "Untitled Film Stills," featuring herself posing as stock female characters like vamps, noir-movie victims, and girls next door in fictional B-movies; feminists immediately embraced the photos as brilliantly acid critiques on both the representation of women in popular culture and women's actual societal roles. Sherman continued in a similar vein through the 1980s, gradually turning to more shocking imagery, including dummies having sex. In 1987, a major show at the Whitney generated critical encomia—the Times called her "a simulationist par excellence" and "an originator of the post-modern attack on originality." Major retrospectives at the MoMA in 1997 and 2012 have cemented her status as one of the most important figures in contemporary photography.

An icon for young female photographers, Sherman is studied in gender studies classes everywhere. After experimenting with a number of different styles, in recent years she's returned to both role-playing and self-portraits. Meanwhile, her vintage photos have become some of the priciest on the planet. Sherman was married to New York video artist Michel Auder for 15 years before divorcing him in 1999. She's currently dating David Byrne. [Image via Getty]