Cindy Sherman is an American photographer who is known best for her elaborately disguised self portraits that focus a lot on social role playing and the sexual stereotyping of women. In 1977 Sherman worked on ‘Complete United Film Stills’ a series of 69 photographs challenging the stereotypes put in place by the media. Sherman likes to play on Social issues, playing with the idea of femininity in the media. Her photo series in 2000 focused exaggerating female attributes, I response to the medias idea of female beauty standards. As a photographer Sherman focuses mainly on how she lights her models and their pose and facial expression. Sherman is trying to create a piece of art in response to a social issue so its important that she gets all the elements of her photographs right.

This image below take from Shermans photo series in 1977 (complete United Film Stills) I love the camera angle, it empowers the woman in the photograph. It shows the women of the time in a different light juxtaposed to the way they are seen in society as second class citizens. The backdrop of the building is a really effective background, it shows women in the city not at home in the kitchen. The expression on the models face as works really well with the theme of the photograph, the determined look on the ladies face shows she is ready for work and ready for the challenges ahead. Shermans strengths lie in the overall compoistion of the images, Sherman is very good at creating a story within a image. All of the images in the ‘Complete United Film Stills’ are featured in black and white. Putting the photographs in black and white gives the images a timeless feel.

I have chosen to look at Cindy Shermans work for my own individual project because I love the timeless look Shermans photographs have. This is an effect I would love to re-create in my own photographs. Putting a political undertone within images is something many photographers have been doing for years. My own project for this unit will not be featuring any political or social issues but this is defiantly something I will look into doing for a future project.

Dorothea Lange was a documentary photographer who photographed the Great Depression in America. Her most famous photo is ‘The Migrant Mother’ which was a migrant family living in America working long days in the fields. Lange never worked in a studio she used her skill as a 20th century photographer to travel and document people and places she encountered. I enjoy the outside element Lange uses in her portraits. Lange always includes the outside elements in her photographs, they help to tell the story of the subject in the photograph. As I’m going to be shooting outside for most of the individual project I can take on Lange’s experience and included the outside elements into my own environment, getting the model to interact with the environment around them to help with the images story telling .

This particular image below is one of my favourite Dorothea Lange photographs. I love how the child is playfully lying in the grass, I also like how Lange has used the sun to her advantage, capturing the shadows of the grass and making sure they are cast on the child’s face. The shadows are noticeable however they are not distracting, they add texture and contrast to the child’s face and jumper, also makes the black and white element more effective as it creates contrast and difference within the photograph. The fact the the girl is also not looking into the camera is also an effective element of this shot. The girl seems to be completely un-aware that her picture is even being taken. This makes the shot more of a documentary shot rather then a set up portrait.

Having the model not looking at the camera is an effective use of camera work. It makes the audience more involved in the subjects story, it makes us question why is she not looking at the camera? does she know her photograph is being taken? creating a sense of mystery in photography work is a key factor when creating a good picture, to not give all the details away keeps the audience asking questions. Looking at Lange’s work has inspired me to create mystery within my work, not always having the subject looking at the camera is ok.  As I have my final shoot coming up I am going to incorporate the inspiration I have gained from looking at Dorothea Lange’s work.