Cindy Sherman ‘Film Stills’ Analysis

Cindy Sherman ‘Film Stills’ Analysis

Sherman is a photographer widely known for her ‘Untitled Film Stills’. She is the model in all the images, which has continuously created debate over whether or not her work is self-portraiture. Never the less, it is with these film stills that she creates her narrative. As I read in ‘Untitled Film Stills; Cindy Sherman’, narrative photography has been in circulation since Victorian times, with Henry Peach Robinson’s melodramatic posed images. All of Sherman’s images depict one woman, who is always alone and looks to be venerable or scared of something out of shot. Her work is influenced massively by film noir, and explores the different ways in which women and their bodies are represented by the media, historical sources and contemporary artists such as herself.

The narratives within the images revolve very much around drama and suspense, making the viewer think about what could possibly be happening. I chose the image ‘Untitled Film Still #5’ because it’s composition stood out to me, I like how she is filling the right side of the frame and looking off to the big empty space on the left. It makes me wonder who she is looking at, or what she’s seen, there is evidently concern or fright in her eyes. I believe this is what Sherman intended viewers to think, feel, and question when looking at her images. 

Film stills are seen as what can, ultimately, make or break a film. The only difference here being; Sherman isn’t trying to sell a film. Instead the images spoke out to what were called a generation of “baby bloomer” women; housewives who were so used to seeing such imagery on TV, and began to see it as their possible future.

Taking the series into account as a whole, with their titles present, it could be seen to have a linear narrative, as well as their individual narratives based on Sherman’s film influence. However, if they didn’t have their titles at all, they would make a non-linear narrative. ‘Untitled Film Still #27’ shows the woman crying, and stood out to me because of it’s crop and framing. Her head has been cropped off, yet this isn’t something that bothers Sherman. Being a contemporary artist means she doesn’t find the technical or aesthetic aspects as important as the subject matter. I like this view on photography a lot, and I like how they are all black and white, because it gives them a sinister feel.

First blog post: Duane Michals

For my first blog post ever, I thought I’d talk about my first Uni lecture of the year. It was about the Artist Duane Michals, who I’d heard of before but didn’t know anything about him really. He talks about his work and his thought processes, and I’ve decided I really like him and his views on photography-his views on life in general actually. Our first project for this year was called Constructing Narratives, and Michals very much constructs narratives in his work.

The first thing that stood out to me in this video, was when Michals said he doesn’t carry a camera around with him all the time. That’s something I’ve never really done either, I don’t like to rely on a ‘happy mistake’ because what if there are none? Of course, I’ll carry a camera with me on trips, but even then I’m not specifically going out to take photos. I’ll photography what interests me, or makes me laugh, and if I happen to come across a ‘happy mistake’ then that’s great too.

I really like Michals’ work, but in all honesty I think I like the idea of constructing narratives as a whole. I can vaguely remember such work interesting me when I first got into photography. The way the photos create a story just appeals to me, my mind likes to see things in order and I like being able to follow a story to see where it goes.

The above image: Chance Meeting (1970). I put it in here because it basically shows how a lot of Michals’ work is set out, and it displays the obvious story being told. I like this set of images, my favourite thing about them being how each man looks back at the other. It makes me wonder what they’re thinking, what their first impressions of the other person was, just from walking past them. The way they’re looking back gives off a curious vibe to me, especially the man walking towards the camera, with his hand on his chin like that.

Michals has also used text with his images, the first one we looked at was A Letter From My Father:

I really love the text and photo together, and I think putting the text after instead of before was a good idea. This is because it gives you a chance to study the image before you find out any information behind it, and the text then completely changes how you look at it and process it in your head. I find the text quite moving too, the way Michals talks about wanting affection from his Father. I think everyone can relate to this, though it may not be love of their Father they want. The composition of the image is another thing I like about it, the way they are stood and how you can only see Michals’ brother’s profile. I would have liked to have seen all three figures in focus, but I completely understand why the focus is on his Father.

Lastly, I did a little more research through Michals’ work and found a few images with text entitled This Photograph Is My Proof:

The ones I found included couples, and I just really love the idea and story behind them. Relationships have always interested me, and I really enjoy capturing them on camera. These images appealed to me greatly, because the text answers a lot of questions I think of when observing the image. However, the text also creates more questions, which relates to a quote from Michals:

A photo is justified only if it says something “This can also be read that the photo must ask and require something new”

Below is the video we watched in our lecture: