Cindy is one of the most significant artists of the Pictures Generation, who are artists set out to make art that analysed their relationship with popular culture and the mass media. Sherman grew up on Long Island, New York. In 1972 she enrolled at the State University of New York at Buffalo and majored in painting, later switching her major to photography. Cindy Sherman’s work is characterised by her use of self-portraiture to create fictional characters and explore themes such as identity, representation, and the construction of femininity. She challenges societal norms and expectations placed on women. Although Sherman believes her images are not of herself, I technically believe it is her self portraiture.
Mood Board of Cindy Sherman’s work
Image Analysis
Visual
Sherman has adopted the role of a housewife who is cooking for her family as she is wearing an apron and she has cooking supplies in the frame of the image. It looks like this image was taken on the kitchen counter, as some of her head is cut out of the frame to show the cramped environment that she feels. She is posed at the counter whilst holding her stomach and looking over her shoulder to represent her concern for whatever is going on behind the scenes. The fact that she is holding her stomach gives a vibe of protectiveness and nurturing for herself/ the possible child on the way. There is an essence of worry and concern paired with the small area she’s in as she is pushed to the wall to show she’s not alone, and she is to the right third of the image to show she’s less important in the image.
Technical
The shutter speed in this image is quite fast as the subject is in focus, with a well-balanced exposure although the image is monochrome. The angle is taken from a lower position to embrace the feeling that we are there with her in the image, or that we are viewing the situation in the image from an outsiders perspective, like a friend. This image is a half body shot, as it only shows her waist and above. This makes the shot more intimate as it feels like we are closer to her, as we are not seeing her full body like if we were far away. The aperture is small as most of the image is in focus, however the depth of field is shallow as the pan handle is blurred in the foreground.
Contextual
Historically, women have typically been portrayed in the media as housewives whose jobs are to depend on men and be a stay at home mother who cleans and cooks. They were also expected to be carers for the children, and were seen as objects to men, as they’d be expected to have makeup and hair done for their husbands whilst also doing all of the previous roles I mentioned. However, Sherman challenged this dominant ideology by dressing up as these stereotypical women to prove that everything portrayed in the media is not realistic and that it doesn’t define being a woman. Sherman’s ‘untitled film stills’ were intended to resemble the fact that it is all just stereotypes.
Conceptual
By knowing the context, it’s obvious that Cindy Sherman herself is the subject in every image. She uses herself to perform in these images to capture different stereotypes to criticise the film making industry as her images are part of the ‘untitled film stills’. She targets the film industry by using this title, to show they are the industry who represent women in this dominant gender ideology. By being the subject, she makes a mockery of the mass media and the stereotypical “woman”, as she shows that none of it is real when she uses fake noses and fake eyebrows to change her look and make it overdramatic. This could also link to the media today as many young girls see models online who dress as the stereotypical girly girl, which Sherman challenges in her images from her time.
Claude Cahun
Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae.