Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an artist who predominately produces self portraits, depicting herself as imaginary characters in various guises and settings. She rose to prominence with her series “Untitled film stills” which was a series of black and white images taken between 1977 to 1980. The images are fictional and depict scenes from television shows or old vintage style movies. Sherman initially started taking these images in her apartment, using this as her setting, but later moved outside to produce scenes in urban and rural landscapes. It seems form the majority of Sherman’s work that she is challenging how women are perceived and portrayed in various contexts within society.

Below are some bullet points from evaluating the above image singularly.

• vintage style clothing
• feeling of suspense
• sense of scale / tall buildings
• aged film aesthetic
• feels like it could be set in 50s or 60s
• voyeurism
• disguise
• complete control as an artist over the scene
• becoming someone else / fabricated reality
• alter ego
• looking up camera view adds tension / psychological

• feeling of isolation
• desperation
• loneliness
• highlighting vulnerability
• doorways and windows / frames within the frame
• subject pressed into corner of frame
• subject has worried / frantic look
• nightdress adds to depth of feeling of tension
• barefoot outside / looking for help?
• hiding something under nightdress
• slightly looking down camera view also emphasises small statue of the woman
• large door frames add to sense of scale
• square format squeezes the information into the frame
• slanted wall to the right of frame adds to aesthetics
• doesn’t seem to be any sort of specific highlight

References

(ONLINE) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/cindy-sherman-1938 (accessed 2/7/20)
(ONLINE) https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1154 (accessed 2/7/20)
(ONLINE) https://artlead.net/content/journal/modern-classics-cindy-sherman-untitled-film-stills/ (accessed 1/7/20)

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

The two images below were part of a series put together by Broomberg and Chanarin when they had access to The Belfast Exposed Archive. The archives contained over 14,000 black and white contact sheets documenting the troubles at the time in Northern Ireland. Belfast Exposed was founded in 1983 in response to concern over control of images depicting British military activity. When an image was chosen a “dot” was assigned to the image of varying colour, providing the necessary “coding”. Broomberg and Chanarin set about uncovering these dots, to see what had been hidden in the image from the moment it was selected. It was these circular images that according to the artists “offers up a self-contained universe all of its own”.

Some of the images such as below were defaced by members of the public during the time when they had access to the archive. See below.

Reference

(ONLINE) http://www.broombergchanarin.com/hometest (accessed 2/7/20)
(ONLINE) http://www.broombergchanarin.com (accessed 2/7/20)
(ONLINE) http://www.broombergchanarin.com/kodak-1-1-25-1-1 (accessed 2/7/20)