Final Performance Task

Mentor Assignment

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer who focused primarily on redefining the self-portrait in the 1970’s. She was born on January 19, 1959 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. After being raised on Long Island and attending Buffalo State College where she studied visual arts; Sherman became interested in painting and mixed media. Although never exposed to art while growing up, her parents being a retired engineer and a reading teacher, Sherman declared art as her major. After college Sherman started painting but stopped when she felt that her work was not up to her creative standards and that her paintings said as much as they could. Cindy Sherman had a lot more to express as an artist.  While still studying in Buffalo Sherman along with fellow artists Robert Longo and Charles Clough, she began interested in photography and together the three artists created the gallery “Hallways”; a place for new artists to exhibit their work. In the following years Cindy Sherman gained recognition as a promising young photographer with a lot of talent and an interesting perspective.  

Untitled Film Still #14

Cindy Sherman primarily works in film series, each including around ten photographs. Sherman’s untitled film stills express a lot of emotion, which makes her pictures so strong. The untitled film series called “The Complete Untitled Film Stills” Sherman produced between 1977 and 1981 included sixty-nine black and white photographs. These are her most popular works and what she is best known for.

Untitled Film Still #13

The photographs in this collection were taken to bring attention to the female stereotypes of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s that were supported by the media. To add emotion and a realistic aspect to her pictures Sherman posed as the model. All sixty-nine black and white images in this series were her differentiating what she believed the self-portrait to be. To recreate the style of the retro woman in the 50’s and 60’s Cindy Sherman got “all dolled up” using make-up, costumes and wigs to change her appearance in each photograph. She wanted her pictures to look theatrical while still making an important statement about feminism.

Untitled Film Still #56

Some of Cindy Sherman's photographs are the most expensive photographs ever sold at auction. This is proof that her unique ideas and perspective pays off in her work. Sherman's work has also inspired many celebrities to explore photography themselves. In 1997 Madonna sponsored one of Sherman's exhibits and singer Marina Diamandis from Marina and the Diamonds has stated that Sherman was her inspiration for her Electra Heart album cover. Cindy Sherman is an incredible photographer with a rare mindset that inspires her pictures.

Untitled Fim Still #50

In my effort to recreate Cindy Sherman's untitled film stills I too decided to dress-up. I wore a retro skirt and a scarf from the 1960's in my hair. I also wore deep red lipstick and dark eyeliner to emphasize my facial features. I took the pictures at my grandmother's house which still has the same decor it did back when it was built in the 70's. Together with the lighting and the setting of these pictures the atmosphere is similar to Sherman's early film stills. To take the photographs I set up a tripod and put my camera on a very slow shutter speed so that I could still be the subject. I feel that through the use of theatrics and lighting I was able to capture the essence of Cindy Sherman's work in my photographs; and that I was able to bring my own artistic interpretation to her already genius concept.

Final Image 

Sources

"Cindy Sherman Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story." The Art Story: Modern Art Movements, Artists, Ideas and Topics. The Art Story.org, n.d. Web. 2 June 2013. <http://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm>.

"Cindy Sherman Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com ."Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com . Bio., n.d. Web. 2 June 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/cindy-sherman-39916>.

"Cindy Sherman-Biography." Cindy Sherman.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2013. <www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml>.

"Cindy Sherman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman>.

Silk Screening

My final alternative process for this assignment is silk screening. The objective was to silk screen something marketable. After much consideration and a few failed attempts at choosing a picture to posterize on photoshop; i went with the "cliche" of a picture of the Eiffel Tower to print on a pillowcase. I took this picture on a trip to Paris last March, and it is one of my favourite photos. 

Original Image

Posterized Image

The next step in the silk screen process was to transfer the picture of the Eiffel Tower onto a screen and then expose it to light. From here I had to wash away the emulsion and use fabric paint to print the image onto the pillowcase. The end result is something I am quite happy with. 

Silk Screen

Final Product

Breaking The Rules

This assignment is all about breaking the rules, the rules of photography. I found it especially challenging to simply forget all the compositional elements of photography I have been using to take pictures all semester. This first photo is breaking the rules of simplicity. A simplistic picture with good composition would have the pink flower as the main focus with the stone as the only background. Instead the background of this image is cluttered with other plants and flowers, as well as a ziploc bag. 

1/40 f5.6

The second picture breaks the rules of rule of positioning. The dog is placed past the rule of thirds position with its tail stretching through the picture. The dog's head is also cut out of the photo. There is also a bit of asymmetrical balance from the case in the top left corner of the picture, however it is too high to balance the power of the image.

1/200 f4.5

  This final picture breaks the compositional rule of lines. Lines are supposed to bring your eye through the photo, however this picture distracts the eye instead. There are many opposing angles and bars throughout the picture that make it hard to decipher a clear path through the image.                          

1/40 f5

Gel Medium Transfer

My second alternative process assignment is a gel-meduim transfer image of the flowers in OT's attrium. I took the picture with a Nikon D3100 digital camera and then proceeded the apply the gel medium to the printed photo.  I added acrylic paint to the image over the green and red parts of the flowers, then applied additional coats of the gel-medium. Once I had applied about thirty coats of the gel-medium and it dried, I put the image into a  tub of water and peeled off the back paper; leaving just the gel-medium picture.

Gel-Medium Transfer

Photo Journalism

During our class field trip to the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), we were assigned the task of taking a picture that could be used as the cover photo for the Toronto Star. To do this we had to become "photojournalists". I was finally able to find this photo after walking around for what seemed liked forever trying to find the perfect shot.

f.10 1/30



This picture is of a trash container and a recycling bin in Grange Park. While Cora and I walked along the park's main path, I noticed that people who walked into the park weren't there to admire the scenery or go to the playground; they were just there to throw away their garbage. These containers were being filled with fast food waste and paper. Although only one of the containers (the blue one) was a recycling bin, no one seemed to care when they stuffed their leftover McDonald's french fries into it, and their paper waste into the garbage bin. I felt that this would make a good newspaper cover photo for an article concerning the environment and the affect Toronto habitants are having on it through their wastefulness. 

Photograms

This assignment called for us to make "Photograms" (images made without cameras). To do this we played around with layering various materials in the dark room. We used different textures and exposed them to light from the enlargers onto photo paper. Together the materials the light, formed images and patterns on the paper; creating wonderful collages of composition and shape. This first image is made up of layered bubble wrap, string, tissue paper, shear fabric and the lid of a tumbler cup.

For the second image I once again used bubble wrap, string, tissue paper and shear fabric. However this time I added a foam circle and a thick piece of coiled rope. This photogram has better contrast than the previous one. You can actually see the whites, greys and blacks on the paper. 

This final image is more of a staged photogram. I created a scene out of the bubble wrap, shear fabric and string. The string was used to make balloons and I used cotton balls and a foam circle to make the clouds and sun.