“I’m more interested in films, I think, than I am in art on a certain level.”
—Cindy Sherman
The photograph offered here is one of the key images in Cindy Sherman’s seminal Untitled Film Still series. Made between 1977 and 1980, the Untitled Film Stills took as their starting point female stereotypes from popular culture, including those found in B movies, film noire, television, and pulp fiction. Sherman cast herself as the main character in each photograph, meticulously styling and costuming herself for dramatic effect in her performance for the camera. Never named or identified, Sherman’s heroines are nevertheless immediately recognizable as archetypes, prompting viewers to construct their own narratives. The element of performance in Sherman’s Film Stills and their investigation of self and identity, have made the work a central touchstone in postmodern and contemporary art.
