Photoshoot plan – inspired by Cindy Sherman’s ‘Untitled Film Stills’ (1977-1980)
My first idea for this photoshoot is to take photos of someone else inside or outside at night, which are inspired by the portraits Sherman took of herself in her series of photographs called ‘Untitled Film Stills’. In some of these photos she took, she is outside and is also seen wearing clothing which contrasts against the environment she is in, for example, wearing a white dress with either dark interior walls or a dark night sky. I could also invert these colours for more variety in my photographs. I am inspired by these photographs Sherman took because of how this contrast makes the subject stand out whilst within different locations and landscapes.
For my photos to not be too underexposed if taken in a dark environment, the shutter speed has to be slower, with an ISO of around 800-3200, this will also make the image more grainy, and appear more like Sherman’s photographs. I might also use flash in some photographs, which I will have to change these settings, for example, lowering the ISO to around 200-400. These photos by Cindy Sherman have been taken from a distance, where the subject takes up less space in the composition with a large depth of field, so I will use a small aperture.
My second idea for this photoshoot is to take photos of someone else inside, either in a house or workplace, which are inspired by Cindy Sherman. I might also use some props for this photoshoot, for example, kitchenware or kitchen utensils within a typical kitchen setting, or equipment which is used within the job the who I am photographing works at. For clothing, the person I will be photographing could wear the attire which is usually worn at their workplace, which could depict how women are portrayed in media, as in Cindy Sherman’s case, she performed and challenged the different ways of how women are supposed to look and act to be considered typically female in film in the 1950s and 60s. She also exposes the artificially and culturally constructed idea of gender and femininity with her photos. For example, in Sherman’s photos where she is in the kitchen, she is often seen wearing an apron, which was prominent in films during that time.
For this photoshoot my camera settings will be different from the first photoshoot plan because there is more lighting and the photos might have less dark values. The ISO will probably be around 100-400, the shutter speed wont have to be too fast since the subject wont be moving much, and the depth of field/aperture will differ depending on the location and composition.
I will be using a Fujifilm digital camera to take these photos, which I feel will be able to replicate a similar look to Sherman’s photographs, using this camera I could also set the colour to greyscale, or change that during editing.