Research: Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman was born in New Jersey on January the 19th in the year of 1954. She is an American photographer and film director who is best known for her conceptual portraits and she currently lives and works in New York. Her work tends to represent and raise challenges towards the important questions about the roles and representations of women within society, the media and creation of art.

She became interested in the visual arts at Buffalo State College, which is where she began painting. To which she later gave up and decided to turn her interest and took up photography. Through her career, Sherman has worked in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. She has also appeared in a film in which she acted as a film noir style actress. Although she doesn’t class her work as being feminist, many of her photographs are classed as stereotyping women in films, television and magazines.

Other workings from Sherman are her collection of film stills, which are all in black and white. Sherman places herself as an unnamed actress in the shots that can be classed as Hollywood pictures and stills from a film noir. In these images she uses her own possessions as props or borrowed, and largely are taken within her very own apartment. She has also created a number of visual forms such as; Fashion Photographs and Historical Photographs.

One of the most shocking workings I found of Cindy Sherman’s was work in which was both disturbing and weirdly funny depicted by its critics. These were photographs that featured pieced together medical dummies.

Cindy has also worked as a film director and has won many awards for her work in both photography and film.

 

My Thoughts and Influences

Cindy’s work especially with the medical body parts has been the most disturbing to date with my research. Although I want my piece to be obscure and unordinary/off the spectrum sort of speech, looking at those images took by Sherman were shall I say a step too far. Although I will say I want a similar reaction to the work I produce in my finalised FMP, being that I want create that shock factor for my audience.

I admire that a lot of her work she used herself as the photographed subject, and used her own belongings and possessions as props and costumes. Being that money may be an issue for my project, considering the cost of exhibition space and the hiring of models, it may come down to myself as the photographer to supply some of my own props and costume, if I have suitable items.