Cindy Sherman is an American artist who explores a wide range of common social female roles/personas. She creates a series, ‘Untitled Film Stills’ 1977-1980, consisting of 69 different photographs, which achieved international recognition. It is mainly composed of black-and-white self-portrait photographs that challenge gender expectations of the later twentieth century.

 

Sherman has created a large body of work over her career, but the series that has stood out the most is the ‘Untitled Film Stills’ series of hers, made up of 69 photos. This series was shot very ambiguously with the photos taking on many different scenarios in many different locations. The photos are left wide open for interpretation, and it seems that majority of Sherman’s audience has judged her this series as being ‘feminist’ and that it challenges gender expectations and covers concepts/issues of identity.

 

There are many various reasons why her audience has interpreted this series in the way they have as, in her photos, Sherman does portray multiple, common female ‘roles’ or ‘personas’ throughout history and that are still evident to this day in certain societies. She often places herself in areas of her apartment that have to do with the stereotypical roles of women such as the kitchen, the bathroom and the laundry. She also poses defiantly and shows emotion in her face of opposition, for example, in the photo “Film Still #2” an audience could easily interpret her face having an expression saying “why am I doing this again?”

 

Despite all of these reasons, Cindy Sherman has said that her photos in this series do not have a specific narrative or story to them, she stated in an interview that “I didn't think of what I was doing as political”.  Even though Sherman states that she has no intention of conveying a message her photos still display ideas of gender expectations in the late 20th century.