Cindy Sherman, born 1954, is an American whose work consists primarily of self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough of work is often considered as her collection of ‘untitled film stills’. This collection consisted of 70 black and white photographs of Sherman depicting herself as typical female roles in performance media. I have chosen Sherman as a case study as she demonstrates the stereotypical views that most people have on women and this is shown in her photos.

Untitled Film Stills

In her series of ‘Untitled Film Stills’ Cindy Sherman herself poses as various different stereotypical women based on the 1950s and 1960s Hollywood, Film noir, B movies, and European art-house films. These photos represent clichés of stereotypical females, these included the typical office girl, bombshell, girl on the run, house wife and more. In each of these photos the woman is facing away from the camera and outside of the frame which adds a sense that it is from a movie which fits in with the name of this collection ‘Untitled Film Stills’. Sherman is not only the photographer but she is also the subject of these photos which allows her to be able to portray herself in a way which sends the correct message to the viewer.

Sherman named all her photos as ‘untitled’ as she wanted to allow the viewer to be able to interpret their own meaning rather than each photo having one singular meaning. In December 1995, the Museum Of Modern Art acquired Cindy Sherman’s entire collection of Untitled Film Stills (sixty-nine). Later on Sherman decided to add one final image to this collection bringing it to 70 photos in total. This photo was her final photo in her collection of ‘untitled film stills’.

“I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character.” Cindy Sherman

Analysis

In Cindy Sherman’s collection of self-portraits named ‘untitled film stills’ she presents herself as typical female roles within performance industry. This photo shows Sherman herself acting as a female in a movie stood over a sink whilst holding her stomach. This photo can be used to show the stereotypical views of how women meant to act and what they were meant to do back in that era. This can be implied by the apron that she is dressed in as women were meant to stay home to cook and clean whilst the man went to work, the blurred pot in the foreground of the photo can also show this stereotypical view on women back then. The way that Sherman is holding her stomach and looking over her shoulder could suggest that she is pregnant and fearful of what is to come. It could also suggest she is in a toxic situation as scared for the child. The haircut in this photo, as well as it being black and white, implies that the photo is meant to have an older look as this hairstyle was popular during the early 20th century. There is a slight grain texture to the photo which adds an older look as well.

Planning a response

In order to respond to Cindy Sherman I will have to take my photos outside of school in a home environment. I will take photos of my model doing tasks that used to be widely associated with women back in the 20th century such as cleaning and cooking. I aim to create two photoshoots based on Sherman’s work.