1. Cindy Sherman is considered a feminist photographer because much of her work is questions traditional female roles in society. The characters that she portrays in her photographs are dramatic and often show a hidden anger and repression.In her Untitled Film Stills (1980) Sherman showed us glimpses of a movie in the form of a photograph. These black and white, one frame films were inspired by European cinema of the 1950's and 1960's. The women of that cinematic base were often more depicted as working class women as opposed to the glamour of the American scene. The different characters that appear in the stills (different even though all were played by Sherman herself) pose in positions that we might recognise as normal. But as you look closer you see that they show something that is has become cliched. Her work is filled with the feeling that what they represent is someone in a static position but wants to get out. Life is not about being the ideal woman that is so often portrayed in the media.
In a series commisioned by an art magazine, Sherman emulated the style of commercial centrefolds while adding an acid bite to the image. These women appear almost haunted in their expressions like the vitcims of some abuse. They seem to want to make men ( the type of men who buy sex magazines) feel something like repulsion or guilt. In that way the set out of the work was very deliberate (although the photographer may or may not agree) , it seems, in trying to create some kind of consciousness, amongst men, towards the feminist movement.
More recently Sherman has explored areas in horror, the grotesque and sexuality. In these images she often uses porsthetic body parts as well as fake vomit and rubbish. She nowadays appears less in her own pictures, leaving that to the dummies, which explore the depths of ugliness and human body parts.
Sherman may not consciously try to make feminist statements (she claims to be 'too wishy-washy to be political' [video]) however this does come throught her work. This most likely comes from her experience as a female, growing up through the steretypes of her generation and then living in a (somewhat) hostile city like New York. That is, iit comes from her life experience. Her photographs express her inner most feelings, just like any other artist of any other medium. Her characters questions the role society has tried to impress on her but she also challenges it. There is a strength in her work that defies repression. The feminity in her pictures is the other side of the one presented by the media and perhaps, the more real. If she is a feminist it comes from the fact that she exposes the wishes and longings of real women. She asks for something other then what she had fed to her as a girl.
'If I had not been born at this time and place, I would not have been able to use this form of expression, and if I had beena man I could not have created on my own experience this way'[Fuki,80].
* * * 2. The change in Sherman's technique in photograph compostion has changed as her individual exploration has diversed. She has not done her own printing for over fifteen years so one would assume that she does all of her composition in the studio with her camera. She worked with black and white film until about 1980, after the Film Stills series. She explains 'Black and white lends such a nostalgic feeling to photographs and I wanted to move on' [Fuki, 79]. She has been experimenting with colour ever since.
In the Film Stills series worked in solitude (as she still does), often shooting inside her won apartment and on the street. She spent hours dressing up and creating different characters (as she still does) taking the pictures when the felt right. She did research books and magazines ' and made metal notes of costumes in certain periods, or poses, or expressions or backgrounds' for the series but she says : 'Once I actually start working, that material comes out more or less intuitively, unplanned.'[Fuki,79]. She wanted the pictures to have the look of a real film still and the lighting accompanies that. Borrowing the styles of the films she 'quoted' from. The lighting is clear and without too much innovation, like a 1950's B grade film. In these photographs the model is accompanied by props and background, the model being only a part of the setup. It's all to do with intuition and luck. Sherman describes her experience: 'Like the hitchhiker [Untitled Film Still #48]. I took only about six shot of the hitch \hicker. In the last shot, I happened to stand up. In all five of the others I was sitting down on the suitcase but in the last one I happened to stand up and look intdo the distance. That was the one that worked.'[Fuki,81]
In her works in colour, Sherman's lighting becomes more dramatic. She moved more into her studio began to experiment in gels and lightings and all elements that involved colour. The model became the focus of the scene, there longing, more serious then the characters of the film stills. The pictures became more dark in subject. Again Sherman models, but this time she isn't recreating, she in creating: 'When I don't even recognise what's in the mirror…It's never like planned out, it's like, suddenly this apparition is there'[video] then she takes the photograph..
In her more recent works, Sherman still keeps her intuitive planning . Now with even more vivid colour, dramatic lights and weird subject matter. She works in a studio (still by herself) using theatre type spotlights. Using dolls and prosthetics see began to creat still lifes making the process much more prepared (because dolls don't have spontaneous expressions). She takes polaroid shot (practice) to help set them up on film. The images have become more surreal and more disturbing:
'Through a photo you can make people believe anything. It's really the person behind it figuring out ways to tell lies, in a way, through the camera…I think it's more interesting to show what you might never see.'[video].She doesn't look for anything in specifics, just weirdness.
From the 'realistic' clear light of the Stills to the weird ambiguity and twisted lighting (if that is a word to associate with light) of her later works. Shermans work has changed from a statement about the world to a move into an exploration of herself and her fears and portrays each as she feel appropriate.
* * * 3. Sherman's interest in film and cinema is very evident in her work. From the Film stills to the genre inspired later pictures, the influence of media is everywhere.
In the Film Stills (1980) Sherman createes scenes from the B grade movies of the 1950's and 1960's. In these works, Sherman does not glorify film, rather she questions it and the way it pushes people into roles that are unrealistic in reality. The stills themselves have a cinematic quality:
'There was something haunting about them and scary about them and perfect about them. That they were from a movie, that somehow she has created an entire film around that on frame of film that we never see but somehow we know what the set is.'[video, Jamie Lee Curtis].
The films Sherman loves are horror movies. This is connected to her own work, she explain: 'I think my biggest fear is a horrible, horrible death, and I think this fascination with the grotesque and with horror is a way to prepare for the unithinakable'[Fuki,80]. She finds that horror films in someway are comforting to her:'There's something you can laugh at in them, maybe knowing that it's all artificial. You feel safe, knowin that the head that's been chopped off is a piece of plastic.'[Fuki, 80].
The influence of the horror genre is very evident in her work in grotesque. The typical horror film formula were the female protagonist (Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween) is assailed by something in a darkened corner, and the moment of anticipation before that is a feeling she likes. She is not, however, interested in capturing blood baths on film. The terror she tries to convey lies just below the surface.
Many of Sherman's images are the stuff of nightmares, featuring fake body parts, fake faces exaggerated. She seems to be, once more creating one frame films, except this time they are horror films.
4. Untitled #93 1981, colour photograph
This untitled piece is from the 'centrefold' series. It depicts a woman, lying in a bed with sheets pulled up to her chin. The view of the shot is from above the girl although she is presented to us horizontally, her chin about the centre of the frame, her eyes looking forward, slightly up, towards the left hand side of the page. Her blonde hair is messed, sweaty and frames her face in an impression of exhaustion. The light shines from the top of the photograph onto her face and arms contrasting to the black blue sheets. Her arms, clutching the sheet, in a protective gesture towards her chest. Her face is exhausted, her eyes weary but still war of something in the distance. On her shoulders are lacy straps of a woman's night dress. This feminine symbol, clashing with the rest of the image.
The lighting and composition of this photograph make the image very disturbing. There is just enough light to let us know the expression of the figure, whilst enough darkness to make the image feel uneasy and ambiguous. The girl's expression is very misty. On one hand it seems she is all at once tired but scared of something out there. On the other hand, it may be that she is merely mentally tired and afraid of something within herself. It is this ambiguity that has lead to some people to believe that this girl had been raped although Sherman herself saw the girl as someone who had partied too hard.
This photograph is in some ways very similar to the other photographs in the series although quite different from other series'. The centrefold type layout and the type of female portrayed in it is a theme throughout. However, this photograph has its own energy and meaning.
As mentioned before, on its exhibition, some people supposed that this picture was of a raped girl. The caused a great controversy in feminist circles as many thought this portrayed women as perpetual victims. However, there it could also be said that this art work represents feminism, by showing the oppression and troubles of real women. Not all women look like centrefolds, not all centrefolds live like they look. I tend to agree with the latter. Even though Sherman might not have realised what type of statement she was making, she did make one. It was a strong message and a very personal one. She has admitted that she wanted a 'a man opening up the magazine to look at in an expectation of something lubricous then feel like the violator they would be.'[video] and I feel she is quite justified in wanting to.
I like this photograph , the ambiguity of it. The composition is not extraordinary but the feelings and questions it presents is striking. You could spend a lot of time wondering what exactly is on her mind. There is fear and tiredness and almost despair in that expression. Although it is quite obviously staged, it give you the impression of looking through a window into something very private. I also like the way it was set up, as a feministic sort of anti-centrefold. It's a work of emotion and feeling and conscience.