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The Complete Untitled Film Stills
Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, a series of 69 black-and-white photographs created between 1977 and 1980, is widely seen as one of the most original and influential achievements in recent art. Witty, provocative and searching, this lively catalogue of female roles inspired by the movies crystallizes widespread concerns in our culture, examining the ways we shape our personal identities and the role of the mass media in our lives. Sherman began making these pictures in 1977 when she was 23 years old. The first six were an experiment: fan-magazine glimpses into the life (or roles) of an imaginary blond actress, played by Sherman herself. The photographs look like movie stills--or perhaps publicity pix--purporting to catch the blond bombshell in unguarded moments at home. The protagonist is shown preening in the kitchen and lounging in the bedroom. Onto something big, Sherman tried other characters in other roles: the chic starlet at her seaside hideaway, the luscious librarian, the domesticated sex kitten, the hot-blooded woman of the people, the ice-cold sophisticate and a can-can line of other stereotypes. She eventually completed the series in 1980. She stopped, she has explained, when she ran out of clichés.
Other artists had drawn upon popular culture but Sherman's strategy was new. For her the pop-culture image was not a subject (as it had been for Walker Evans) or raw material (as it had been for Andy Warhol) but a whole artistic vocabulary, ready-made. Her film stills look and function just like the real ones--those 8 x 10 glossies designed to lure us into a drama we find all the more compelling because we know it isn't real. In the Untitled Film Stills there are no Cleopatras, no ladies on trains, no women of a certain age. There are, of course, no men. The 69 solitary heroines map a particular constellation of fictional femininity that took hold in postwar America--the period of Sherman's youth and the starting point for our contemporary mythology. In finding a form for her own sensibility, Sherman touched a sensitive nerve in the culture at large. Although most of the characters are invented, we sense right away that we already know them. That twinge of instant recognition is what makes the series tick and it arises from Cindy Sherman's uncanny poise. There is no wink at the viewer, no open irony, no camp.
In 1995, The Museum of Modern Art purchased the series from the artist, preserving the work in its entirety. This book marks the first time that the complete series will be published as a unified work, with Sherman herself arranging the pictures in sequence.
Other artists had drawn upon popular culture but Sherman's strategy was new. For her the pop-culture image was not a subject (as it had been for Walker Evans) or raw material (as it had been for Andy Warhol) but a whole artistic vocabulary, ready-made. Her film stills look and function just like the real ones--those 8 x 10 glossies designed to lure us into a drama we find all the more compelling because we know it isn't real. In the Untitled Film Stills there are no Cleopatras, no ladies on trains, no women of a certain age. There are, of course, no men. The 69 solitary heroines map a particular constellation of fictional femininity that took hold in postwar America--the period of Sherman's youth and the starting point for our contemporary mythology. In finding a form for her own sensibility, Sherman touched a sensitive nerve in the culture at large. Although most of the characters are invented, we sense right away that we already know them. That twinge of instant recognition is what makes the series tick and it arises from Cindy Sherman's uncanny poise. There is no wink at the viewer, no open irony, no camp.
In 1995, The Museum of Modern Art purchased the series from the artist, preserving the work in its entirety. This book marks the first time that the complete series will be published as a unified work, with Sherman herself arranging the pictures in sequence.
164 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Cindy Sherman
75 books40 followersCindy Sherman is an American photographer and filmmaker whose self-portraits offer critiques of gender and identity. What made Sherman famous is the use of her own body in roles or personas in her work, with her seminal series Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980) being particularly important. These black-and-white photographs feature the artist herself as a model in various costumes and poses, and are her portrayals of female stereotypes found in film, television, and advertising. Similar to Barbara Kruger, Sherman examines and distorts femininity as a social construct.“I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colorful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you're looking at is something totally opposite,” she reflected. “It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It's more challenging to look at the other side.”
Born on January 19, 1954 in Glen Ridge, NJ, the artist abandoned painting for photography while attending the State University of New York at Buffalo, and in 1976, moved to New York to pursue a career as a photographer. In addition to the Untitled Film Stills series, she has continued to explore women as subject matter, often donning elaborate disguises in large-scale color photographs, throughout her career. While her practice has grouped her with the Pictures Generation, along with artists such as Sherrie Levine and Robert Longo, her distinctive blend of performance and photography stands alone. Her work has been the subject of many museum exhibitions, including those at The Museum of Modern Art in 2019, and at the National Portrait Gallery, in London in 2019. Sherman lives and works in New York, NY.
Born on January 19, 1954 in Glen Ridge, NJ, the artist abandoned painting for photography while attending the State University of New York at Buffalo, and in 1976, moved to New York to pursue a career as a photographer. In addition to the Untitled Film Stills series, she has continued to explore women as subject matter, often donning elaborate disguises in large-scale color photographs, throughout her career. While her practice has grouped her with the Pictures Generation, along with artists such as Sherrie Levine and Robert Longo, her distinctive blend of performance and photography stands alone. Her work has been the subject of many museum exhibitions, including those at The Museum of Modern Art in 2019, and at the National Portrait Gallery, in London in 2019. Sherman lives and works in New York, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
July 29, 2020
The photographs in the book shadow the movie storyboards. It is a rich collection of pictures that Cindy took posing herself as a model for the photos. She tried to replicate the look of the movies and the females from the period 40s to 60s. A bold and innovative idea in photography towards the end of her work pictures start looking the same and listless and seem to lose their appeal.
March 21, 2019
I'm studying Photography this semester. Sherman's name came up while discussing self-portraits. And then I found this book. A series of now 70 black-and-white photographs taken between 1977 and 1980.
One of my favorites:
March 21, 19
* Later on my blog.
** Credit: Photo via moma.org
I thought I could go on indefinitely with these characters, but by 1980 fashion styles had begun to absorb a lot of the clothes I was using, nostalgia was in, so I started to think the work was looking a little too fashionable. I didn’t think about what I was leaving behind; for the most part I really had no clue what other people would come to think of this work.
One of my favorites:
March 21, 19
* Later on my blog.
** Credit: Photo via moma.org
November 4, 2024
Tem umas semanas discutimos o trabalho fotográfico da Cindy Sherman no nosso grupo de estudos sobre Psicanálise e Arte, logo depois, por uma total coincidência, eu tinha programado de ver o único longa que ela dirigiu nos anos 90: Office Killer, um slasher que é muito menos falado que deveria, já que ele é uma espécie de precursor feminista de American Psycho.
Bom, só esse fim de semana parei para ter um olhar mais demorado no seu livro Untitled Film Stills e ele é um verdadeiro compêndio da mulher no século XX. Se as fotos foram tiradas em fins dos anos 70, na verdade elas abrangem personificações de várias eras, mostrando uma atemporalidade e negação da espacialidade em conjunção. O mais gostoso é ver o lampejo de divas do cinema em cada uma delas. Coisa fina.
Bom, só esse fim de semana parei para ter um olhar mais demorado no seu livro Untitled Film Stills e ele é um verdadeiro compêndio da mulher no século XX. Se as fotos foram tiradas em fins dos anos 70, na verdade elas abrangem personificações de várias eras, mostrando uma atemporalidade e negação da espacialidade em conjunção. O mais gostoso é ver o lampejo de divas do cinema em cada uma delas. Coisa fina.
May 25, 2017
Easily one of the best dozen or so photobooks ever published. Essentially perfect; a very good idea executed in a series of photos that is completely effective on every level.
The most interesting bit, to me, is that she even succeeds with the male gaze / feminism / representation / etc. angle, something that is incredibly difficult to do in an interesting or subtle way (as evidenced by the work of LITERALLY ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS influenced by Sherman).
With Film Stills, the subtext is there if you're looking for it, but she doesn't let the work suffer in order to get across a political point; as Sherman put it, to her eternal credit, "The work is what it is and hopefully it's seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I'm not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff."
Theory has become infinitely more prevalent in MFA student photo-land in the past three decades, to the obvious detriment of the photography itself; Sherman remains one of the strongest examples of how to combine theory and content in the best possible way.
The most interesting bit, to me, is that she even succeeds with the male gaze / feminism / representation / etc. angle, something that is incredibly difficult to do in an interesting or subtle way (as evidenced by the work of LITERALLY ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS influenced by Sherman).
With Film Stills, the subtext is there if you're looking for it, but she doesn't let the work suffer in order to get across a political point; as Sherman put it, to her eternal credit, "The work is what it is and hopefully it's seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I'm not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff."
Theory has become infinitely more prevalent in MFA student photo-land in the past three decades, to the obvious detriment of the photography itself; Sherman remains one of the strongest examples of how to combine theory and content in the best possible way.
June 26, 2012
LUV HUH.
'nuff said.
Ok, but seriously, for years I've been a fan of Sherman's Untitled Film Stills but could only find a handful of of them - most notably stills #7 and #14 which have become the iconic stills from this series.
If you don't know what these are then here's the rub: from 1977 to 1980 Cindy Sherman took b&w self portrait photgraphs of herself dressed as different "characters" from imaginary films.
The result is an ambiguous film "still" that proves the age old adage of a picture is worth a thousand words:
Why does the young girl have a black eye? Who is the blonde girl waiting for on the side of the road? How did the glamorous housewife spill her groceries and who is she looking at? Is the girdle clad starlet drunkenly staggering out of her bedroom or is she angry at the paparazzi?
These are some of the questions the photos will have you asking yourself.
Finally some one has decided to put the complete collection of films stills together into one coffee table book - some of which I've never seen before - and what a treat. It's a true feast for the eyes.
'nuff said.
Ok, but seriously, for years I've been a fan of Sherman's Untitled Film Stills but could only find a handful of of them - most notably stills #7 and #14 which have become the iconic stills from this series.
If you don't know what these are then here's the rub: from 1977 to 1980 Cindy Sherman took b&w self portrait photgraphs of herself dressed as different "characters" from imaginary films.
The result is an ambiguous film "still" that proves the age old adage of a picture is worth a thousand words:
Why does the young girl have a black eye? Who is the blonde girl waiting for on the side of the road? How did the glamorous housewife spill her groceries and who is she looking at? Is the girdle clad starlet drunkenly staggering out of her bedroom or is she angry at the paparazzi?
These are some of the questions the photos will have you asking yourself.
Finally some one has decided to put the complete collection of films stills together into one coffee table book - some of which I've never seen before - and what a treat. It's a true feast for the eyes.
September 14, 2008
Previously, I had only stumbled across examples of Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills" individually--a cluster in the Tate Modern, a stray posting on an internet blog, etc. But here they all are, an expansive body of work grouped together and arranged by Sherman herself for maximum impact--and what an impact it has! This might as well be called a short story collection as much as an art book, for each turn of the page presents not only a dramatic black and white photograph but a story without words. And each story presented--in one a blowsy brunette in her underewar and sunglasses, clutching a martini and viciously confronting the camera, in yet another a blonde wrapped up in a dark trenchcoat, nervously navigating her way through a darkened street, all recognizably Sherman yet somehow not quite her either--present the potential for endless variations, interpretations, ponderings and conjenctures. A book meant to be pulled out often to be admired and puzzled over--it's a shame I have to return it back to the library.
June 14, 2007
I love the way Cindy Sherman brings an element of stage/theater/acting to photography and the eleaborate storytelling she weaves into each of her photos.
When I studied her in a photography class I found it interesting that she would often dress in characters she had created during her normal life. Apparently she had an office secretary character that she dressed up as when she went to work. She had invented some elaborate story and character analysis of this office secretary as well. Apparently she would also go to parties in various costumes and all the conversations she had at the party would be in character.
Very inventive and creative.
When I studied her in a photography class I found it interesting that she would often dress in characters she had created during her normal life. Apparently she had an office secretary character that she dressed up as when she went to work. She had invented some elaborate story and character analysis of this office secretary as well. Apparently she would also go to parties in various costumes and all the conversations she had at the party would be in character.
Very inventive and creative.
January 5, 2022
That embarrassing moment when you discover an artist whose work is exceptionally meaningful to you and you get excited to tell people about her and then everyone sort of cocks their head like a confused dog and says some version of “uh, yeah dude, I know who she is” and you have to awkwardly laugh and explain how uh you didn’t and she’s uh real neat and then change subjects to something covid related.
It’s like the time in college that I told my mom she’d really like Nick Drake and she looked at me like I was the dumbest and said (a direct quote) “I’ve known who he was for thirty years. You aren’t discovering anything for me, sorry”
It’s like the time in college that I told my mom she’d really like Nick Drake and she looked at me like I was the dumbest and said (a direct quote) “I’ve known who he was for thirty years. You aren’t discovering anything for me, sorry”
November 24, 2007
this book is indulgent and luscious. this book does justice to the brilliance of sherman's art without being saccharine about it.
March 6, 2018
I used this book as a reference for my thesis, in which I wanted to convey any meaning and similarity between occidental and oriental feminine culture within visual art. What I found with Cindy Shermans work was that it posed more questions than answers, just like photographers Daido Moriyama and Anders Petersen whose work does ask of the viewer to perceive more questions than answers. All in all, it is photographic monologue that studies the relationship between the viewer of the cinematograph and visual references within our own lives.
October 6, 2024
The clothes make them seem a certain way, but then you look at their expression, however slight it may be, and wonder if maybe "they" are not what the clothes are communicating. I wasn't working with a raised
"awareness," but I definitely felt that the characters were questioning something perhaps being forced into a certain role. At the same time, those roles are in a film: the women aren't being lifelike, they're acting. There are so many levels of artifice. I liked that whole jumble of ambiguity.
"awareness," but I definitely felt that the characters were questioning something perhaps being forced into a certain role. At the same time, those roles are in a film: the women aren't being lifelike, they're acting. There are so many levels of artifice. I liked that whole jumble of ambiguity.
February 28, 2020
The purest art is given away without hope of being found. Sherman doubles down on this truth: by giving herself over to a project dedicated to lost endeavors, by leaving a perfect project for lost in the shadows outside the bright lights of criticism. This last assertion is a guess—I have no sense of how she felt about Stills or its legacy—but her intoxicating work invites the rapture of conjecture.
January 17, 2019
A very important and relevant book. Cindy Sherman’s pictures perfectly illustrate stereotypical female roles which are still omnipresent in today’s society. I would have loved more text and description of the pictures in the book though.
Read
March 26, 2020I'd only seen a few of Sherman's untitled stills, first introduced to them through the promotional artwork for Marina and the Diamonds' Electra Heart, which drew inspiration from Sherman's work, then a few years later I was reminded of them when I watched The Art Assignment's The Art History of the Selfie video and that's when my interest really deepened and I wanted to see as many as I can find. Thankfully this book helped me achieve this small goal. I enjoyed reading Cindy Sherman's introduction, I think it helped me appreciate them from a different point of view.
February 15, 2026
Cindy Sherman gave depth and meaning to the self-portrait. By dressing up, posing, and photographing herself in different scenarios, Sherman effectively critiques the way women are portrayed in popular media.
May 1, 2019
not thrilled
September 11, 2019
That book is actually fantastic.
December 9, 2021
Please don’t hate me, but this book don’t catch me!
Unfortunately!
Unfortunately!
January 9, 2022
After Years and years of studying Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, it is incredible to see the complete series in a single book!!
March 4, 2023
Fun and engaging self portraits by an interesting woman - the introduction is enjoyable, refreshingly honest and ends all too suddenly…
December 3, 2023
i love her.
June 21, 2024
Common issues among these books. Nearly half of the pages are wasted. Automatic fail.
April 17, 2025
The space between us feels like a promise waiting to be fulfilled. Shall we make it happen, with a slow, lingering touch?
October 24, 2025
Absolutely obsessed with every shot! Got this from the library and definitely want to get my own copy now.
August 28, 2023
Some incredible images, and the introduction is really interesting. I think the work could have benefited from a bit more time spent on the project or a more critical edit; there are a few images that could have been improved on or left out entirely.
February 10, 2017
While studying photography and film at the art academy, Cindy Sherman was one of these topics, especially the film stills. Sherman is one of a kind in the photography world. I always tried to imagine how she pulled it off, she must be a kind of lonely genius. (in my imagination).
My own stage is the street and I kind of dislike studio work, that might be the reason why I have great admiration for Sherman's work.
My own stage is the street and I kind of dislike studio work, that might be the reason why I have great admiration for Sherman's work.
June 29, 2026
Cindy Sherman in The Complete Untitled Film Stills pushes the idea that we're way worse at predicting what will make us happy than we think. I felt like it was solid, because the research is explained like a story and not a lecture. The chapter on big purchases got me thinking about the standing desk I bought and used for exactly two weeks. You don't have to agree with everything, but it definitely forces you to rethink what you chase and why.
September 6, 2007
I want this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews