Week 1

This selfie I took in response to Cindy Sherman's own Untitled Film Still #21. I wished to capture the eyes most of all, the almost sort of fear-disgust that the eyes are portraying. As when someone gives you some bad news or you hear a backhanded comment thrown toward you, the eyes are the primary vehicle for emotion. Also, the mouth, the upper lips slightly pulled up in disgust. This I chose to show in more of a pursed lip fashion to, again, give off the negative vibe of dread or revulsion.
Untitled Film Still #21 speaks most volumes to me. When I see it it reminds me of what a woman might deal with walking through a rough neighborhood. Perhaps someone calling her an obscene name or making a perverse suggestion and then this woman retracting in some degree of fear, anger, and general disgust. This probably goes back to Ms. Sherman's living in 80s New York City.
Ms. Sherman did an interview with Kenneth Baker where she says: "Sometimes…. When I did the head shots, people felt that I was making fun of these characters, but I really felt they kind of endeared themselves to me..." She puts, into her work, an endearment and feeling toward her characters which shows that she does think of the way that they are portrayed and each feeling is deliberate. This is important when one looks at the broader depth of her works and how she works toward that finality.

https://walkerart.org/magazine/cindy-sherman-walker-art-center

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