Untitled Film Stills by Cindy Sherman | Style Imitating Art

It is my turn once again to choose the inspiration artwork for the next Style Imitating Art challenge, which gives us the opportunity to combine our love of art and fashion into one place. Fashion, after all, is our own personal expression of our artistic creativity, a way to showcase who we are without ever having to speak words. But I like words probably more than I like fashion and art so I will always have words to share along with my creative expression through personal style!

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of Meadow Tree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

That would be me! Obviously. Because I already said that!

The Artwork

Untitled Film Stills by Cindy Sherman

(Black and White Photography Gelatin-Silver Prints, 1977-1980)

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills is a series of 70 black and white photographs of the artist herself posed as various generic female film characters that appeared abundantly in movies of the 1950s and 1960s. By photographing herself in these stereotypical female roles, Sherman initiates a dialogue about these stereotypes of women in film. Through her settings, body language, and ambiguous facial expressions, she leaves this body of work open to the subjective interpretations of the viewer. “In other words, the series is a fiction about a fiction, a deft encapsulation of the image of femininity that, through the movies, took hold of the collective imagination in postwar America—the period of Sherman’s youth, and the crucible of our contemporary culture.” (Source)

I fell in love with this collection of photographs nearly 30 years ago when I incorporated an analysis of these images into my undergraduate Philosophy thesis on voyeurism. I also included an analysis of Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Jacques Derrida’s The Post Card in that thesis. You can read a bit more about it in a previous SIA challenge where I featured Picasso’s work.

This collection of photographs is a truly powerful body of work and one that resonated strongly with me since I was a very young adult. Untitled Film Still #48 is my favorite and I always wanted to do a photoshoot inspired by that image. I had that opportunity 5 years ago when Sarissa Melissa Photography helped bring my vision to life.

Although I have already created a post for one of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills, I am excited to choose another image to recreate a different look. I am struggling to find one central place on the internet where you can access all 70 black and white photos so I will provide a few links below where you can view more photographs other than the few I have shared here. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City currently possesses the complete collection but they only share a few images online.

• MoMA Collection
• MoMA: Complete Untitled Film Stills of Cindy Sherman (I can only see a incomplete collection here.)
• Artland Magazine: Portraits of America: Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills
• Artlead: Modern Classics: Cindy Sherman-Untitled Film Stills, 1977-1980
• If you do a Google Image search for “Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Stills”, you can see most of this body of work.

I am not certain which image I will use for this challenge yet, but I am really excited to see what you all come up with. Although all of the images are black and white, there is still lots of sartorial inspiration in these photos. Use your imagination and creativity to interpret this body of work however you please! That is what is so fun about this style challenge series.

If you want to be featured with your art inspired outfit in my gallery post on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, October 18, 2022. 

Happy styling, my friends!

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

Joining these Fabulous Link Parties.