Context: Cindy Sherman is an American contemporary photographer who grew up in New York and who was known for portraying disguised self- portraits which she casted herself in. The title of Cindy Sherman’s work is called “Untitled Film Stills” which was produced during 1977 up till 1980 and it presented a variety of the 70s black and white photography.Her art movement demonstrated identity, playing with visuals and cultural codes of art, gender and photography. WhatCindy Sherman’s work is mainly linked to and focused on is the message behind social role playing and sexual stereotypes which can be seen by her so-called disturbing work. Furthermore, Sherman’s work (Untitled Film Stills) has also made an appearance in a variety of roles which was a reminiscent film noir and it introduced the viewers with an ambiguous portrayal of women as sex objects but she has later on stated that it was about the amount of inauthenticin roleplaying as well as the act of despise towards the domineering male audience who interpreted the pictures as sexy and sensual.
Content: All of these pictures are black and white photographs from Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled Film Stills” which is series based on the photography from the old era for instance, the 70s.Cindy Sherman was inspired by a film that she went to see which was called “La Jetée” by Chris Marker which was a brief shot of a woman opening her eyes as the only image captured in the film. Cindy obtained an inspiration by this film to produce a narrative storyline through single images through her Untitled Films Stills .However, even though she was inspired by this film she made sure she incorporated her own style into it. She was also not only inspired by this certain film but also inspired by actresses from the 70s, other incredible films and directors. By analysing Cindy Sherman’s work, I would say that she mainly focused on monochrome colours and some people could state that she wanted her photographs to have a dramatic effect but I would she wanted her role playing tobe the main subject as this is her whole reason onto why her work is produced. Cindy has also staged the last picture in which she is wearing a dark and opaque dress in the composition named focal point and used a darker colour for her the subject and brighter and whiter colour for the background in order for her disguised self to be the main subjectfor the observer.
Concept: In my opinion I think Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills" is about the female and the femininity representations and how people think that femininity only needs a little makeup ,a perfect pout and the right dress. In her work Cindy disguises as different female characters who all have different styles. This is because Sherman wanted show how all women are different and the fact that femininity does not mean one single thing. The messages of her is how one style of makeup tells people how one woman is and not multiple of them. She constructs the scenes of a woman wearing a short dress to indicate that these are women struggling in life and that their clothes does not highlight who they are or how they feel since they might fitting into the stereotype of how a woman should dress or feel.