Wednesday 25 September 2013

Research • Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is one of my favourite photographers of all time, but when we started this brief, I never looked at her work from a narrative point of view, more of a self portrait and technical point of view. I have decided to investigate the narrative of two photographs, both from the "Film Stills" collection.


Cindy Sherman always used herself in her film still images, which also provoked some questions in my head. Why has she used herself? Is this a reference to her life, dressing up to remain anonymous to the world perhaps? Maybe she has some deeper concerns within her life, like anxiety or confidence issues which make her take on a different persona in her imagery?


Throughout her entire body of work, Sherman investigates particular traits within women's roles in society. Above, looks to be the typical house wife. The pan in the foreground blurred by depth of field and the washing up liquid next to her suggests she is a stay at home housewife, or maybe a busy businesswoman who does the cleaning at night after a day at the office? However, the way she is glancing off to the side suggests that she is not happy with this everyday, maybe she is wondering how to get away and start afresh? Cindy Sherman's narratives leave a lot to be explored, and a lot of questions are raised in my mind. The who, what, where, when and why is asked, which is good when I need to analyse the work of others.

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