This photoshoot was slightly disorganised however I got some of the shots I needed. Even though the plan was not to do a car wash I still managed to get some images. However later in the night when some girls got ready to go out I managed to get some images of the girls getting ready. This was slightly unorganised as some girls already came organised and ready which limited the amount of images I could get. Even with the very limited photoshoot I still managed to get some shots which I think I could possibly use in my exam project. Reflecting on this photoshoot I overall think it could have been more organised and more images could have been taken. Applying this to Honey I believe some images can work of girls getting ready and doing makeup, some of these photos can also work with Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures’ even though she is not my targeted artist reference I believe she is relevant to the project.
During the editing process I will be enhancing the brightest and the idea of using ‘flash’. I will be exploring cooler temperatures such as blue and purple to reinforce this idea of femininity and girl power. Purples and pinks are often associated as feminine therefore reinforcing the gender stereotype I am presenting in my photography. However to further recreate Honey’s look in her photography, I will need to take some photo’s during golden hour.
MY IMAGES VS NANCY HONEY:
COLOUR RATING:
RED: BAD QUALITY IMAGES
YELLOW: RELATIVLY GOOD IMAGES, COULD BE IMPROVED
GREEN: GOOD IMAGES, THAT FIT WELL WITH ARTIST STUDY
PURPLE: BEST IMAGES, FIT WITH ARTIST STUDY, CREATIVE
In this photoshoot I intend to show stereotypical and counter typical views of femininity. In this photoshoot I am exploring girls knowledge about cars. Therefore in this photoshoot I am presenting girls cleaning cars and creating a counter typical view that woman are not only house workers and require the males help. However also in this photoshoot I am intending to take more images of girls getting ready as a second part to photoshoot one, so I can have more of a variety.
WHERE?
This photoshoot will be taken inside, in my friends house in her room where many of the girls will be getting ready. Furthermore, some of the pictures are also taken place outside at Roberts garage in St. Brelades.
LOCATIONS:
HOUSE – INCLUDING BEDROOM AND BATHROOM.
ROBERTS – ST BRELADES
HOW?
I will be using a Kodak Digital camera in order to take more vintage looking images, which have a slight grain to them. Furthermore I will be using the flash setting to try and re create Honeys images as well as trying to recreate the 2000’s aesthetic.
WHY?
This photoshoot intends to present the idea of girls stereotypically getting ready together and applying makeup; overall having fun. However I will also be taking images of girls with cars which can arguably be said as counter typical as more of a masculine trait.
These images were taken during and before a girls birthday party. This photoshoot was to reflect this idea of ‘girlhood’ and the stereotypical view of how girls dress at parties, specifically for the male gaze. In these images there are a range of portraits and close ups of hair and accessories. During the editing process I kept the aesthetic of the digital camera, reinforcing the style of my artist reference Nancy Honey. Honey photographed this idea of ‘girlhood’ in a sense documenting the evolution of their feminine identity. During the process of editing the pictures, I adjusted the tone of the images to more cooler blues and purples, which has connotations of calm, relaxed, and reserved, then warmer yellow tones. The cool tones immediately changed the aesthetic of the images by adding purples hues, which is stereotypically a more feminine colour. Furthermore connotations of cool colours are often associated with feelings of calmness, relaxation, tranquillity or sometimes even melancholy, which can be seen through Honeys photography work.
Furthermore I decreased the exposure to sharpen the leading lines of the images (which is where your eyes follow in the photograph), however I also increased the highlights in order to bring some of the brightness of the flash back into the image, more so by enhancing the highlights in the image you are able to see the highlight point of the young girls faces. In some images I decided to add a white vignette in order to directly focus on the portraits of the girls and what they are doing, whether is it posing or laughing. By adding a white vignette it further brightens the image creating this bright grainy aesthetic of digital camera’s back in the day. By using the white vignette it is also improving the focal point of the images directly drawing the audience, and by brightening the overall image.
Overall the photoshoot went as planned, I managed to get a good range of images of girls getting ready and girls out together. I got many good shots in which I know I will have a range to edit from with different styles and angles. Furthermore by taking images of many girls, it gives me a variety to work with. Most of these shots are posed however shows girls smiling and being happy which can be argued shows the stereotypical woman of being less aggressive then men are stereotyped. This shoot fits with Nancy Honey more then Cindy Sherman, as it portrays young girls and this idea of girlhood, and becoming woman. Some shots that are inspired from Honey is girls doing their makeup and girls helping each other out.
Overall, I believe this photoshoot went well, however to improve I would like to take less posed images and more natural candid images. In which the girls don’t know I am taking images of them and just more in the moment images. During the editing process I plan to experiment with different hues and temperatures (cool and warm tones) in order to create this aesthetic f grainy old camera like the style of Nancy Honey.
MY IMAGES VS NANCY HONEY:
COLOUR RATING:
RED: BAD QUALITY IMAGES
YELLOW: RELATIVLY GOOD IMAGES, COULD BE IMPROVED
GREEN: GOOD IMAGES, THAT FIT WELL WITH ARTIST STUDY
PURPLE: BEST IMAGES, FIT WITH ARTIST STUDY, CREATIVE
In this photoshoot I intend to portray how girls get ready for a party and how they socialize together. This photoshoot will contain elements from my artist case study; Nancy Honey as well as elements from Justine Kurland. I intend to take portraits of girl getting ready and portraits of girls together exploring this idea of friendship, as well as taking photos of close-ups.
WHERE?
This photoshoot will be taken inside, in bathrooms and in bedrooms, which is significantly where girls hang out and get ready.
LOCATIONS:
HOUSE – INCLUDING BEDROOM, BATHROOM, AND CONSERVATORY.
HOW?
I will be using a Kodak Digital camera in order to take more vintage looking images, which have a slight grain to them. Furthermore I will be using the flash setting to try and re create Honeys images as well as trying to recreate the 2000’s aesthetic.
WHY?
This photoshoot intends to present the idea of girls stereotypically getting ready together and applying makeup; overall having fun. Therefore this photoshoot should be reinforcing the dominant stereotypes in which society views woman.
In my exam project in the terms of the theme Observe, Seek, and Challenge, I intend to explore the binary opposition of how femininity is viewed through the male gaze vs the female gaze. I intend to explore this idea of ‘Girlhood‘ which is a project created by Justine Kurland, which I had explored in a previous photography project, in which girls are presented in a hyper feminine way and reinforcing stereotypes in what ‘femininity’ is. Femininity is defined as ‘qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of women or girls’ which can be challenged in the gender fluid society we now live in. Gender fluidity is part of Judith Butlers Gender Trouble theory, which argues that femininity can be presented through males and females, it is a behaviour a person can present, not a biological factor. Which challenges the dominant views that only woman can be feminine, and they are also perceived as feminine through society. To reinforce this idea in my project I intend to create a photoshoot which presents woman as more masculine which would be presented as more; confident, assertive, independent, and daring, in perhaps a dark feminine aesthetic. More so, I will be exploring my key researched artists Nancy Honey, and Cindy Sherman, which explore how femininity is presented through a patriarchal society through establishing an empowering movement of woman, through the female gaze and how woman empower each other. Honey does this by highlighting how femininity can be presented at a young age; girls exploring makeup, girls singing through a microphone, and dying their hair, this can also reinforce this idea of a teenage girlhood fantasy which I aim to portray in my work. Furthermore, I will be ‘observing‘ femininity through a hyper-realistic way in the gaze of Cindy Sherman, which is a highly influential feminist. She explores femininity in youth and challenges the dominant stereotype of beauty standards and behaviour’s woman are assumed to portray in society.
I wish to develop my project into a photobook, presenting images of teenage girlhood, and portraying the life of teenage girls. I will be taking inspiration of Kurland’s photobook ‘Girl Pictures’ which highlights femininity within teenage girl lives. In my photobook I intend to show hyper-femininity and how society had created stereotypes that are still considered presently. Furthermore, I intend to present how woman follow these stereotypes in present society and how it has ultimately affected woman in society. Furthermore, my photobook will be a representation of teenage femininity and what young girls experience in a patriarchal society and the male gaze, which can damage the psyche of humanity. In matters to present images especially the topic of femininity and the concept of stereotypes and counter types in order to show the difference between the real world and the hyper-reality society created which overall clearly shows society as post modernistic supporting Jean Baudrillard’s theory. Within the photobook I will be presenting the contrast between the stereotypical ideologies of what girls are supposed to act like and the beauty standards they should follow in order to belong is society vs how girls actually present themselves and behave in society without the restraint that society has of woman. In terms of presenting the book, I am still unsure whether the orientation will be portrait or landscape, however I plan on presenting my images by having the most relevant images on the right, and the less relevant, fill in photos, on the left. This is due to the right side getting more recognition in photobooks, as it tends to be the page which draws the viewer into viewing the book.
As a female in today’s society this project matters to present the ongoing sexual division and superiority. This project could be seen as a subtle protest for gender equality and how women are still viewed by men, in terms of the male gaze sexualising woman, despite all equality acts. I intend to try and create 5 photoshoots in total inspired by Cindy Sherman, Justine Kurland, and Nancy Honey. I plan on doing these shoots spaced out throughout the month before the exam date which gives me time to prepare and allow myself to see if any of the shoot need to be re-done.
“Now the lack of diversity in photography and the position of women in our society is once again being considered; over the last 40 years, Nancy Honey has already walked the walk as a retrospective look over her 40-year career shows”
Nancy Honey
MOODBOARD:
Honey’s work is relevant to the exam theme Observe, Seek, and Challenge by ‘observing‘ the feminine stereotypes of woman in society. Honey portrays woman in her photography through the lens of her own experiences, therefore portraying it through the female gaze, trying to send a powerful message to society through empowering woman. She portrays the images of woman, through a female community and lens, trying to establish woman empowerment through her photography. In her project Woman to Woman Honey was ‘seeking‘ answers to her sexuality and desires. Therefore fitting with the exam requirements trying to explore the nature of her sexuality. She presented these images I a trip-tic showcasing portraits and abstract images, including parts of a woman’s body, woman applying makeup, and sexualising woman’s curves and intimate areas.
WHO IS NANCY HONEY?
Nancy Honey is a UK-based American documentary and portrait photographer. In her works she focuses on the lives of women, autobiographical, collaborative and documentary. She has been photographing for more than 40 years and has studied fine art, graphic design and photography in the United States and the United Kingdom. In her 40 years of photographing her images draw on her own experiences such as; motherhood, sexuality, power, and aging. In her photography work she records school girls, elderly, and model to explore the idea, what is it to be a woman, now and in this particular place? She was born in America in 1948, yet she began her career as a young mother in Britain, outside society’s usual centres of power, and inside a male dominated industry. Her project Woman to Woman Honey was driven by curiosity about her own sexuality, which may tie in with the representations of femininity in society and connecting with Judith Butlers Gender performativity theory. Butlers theory states that “gender proves to be performance— that is, constituting the identity it is purported to be.” Honey has also published five phonebooks, staring her most successful projects, for example; Woman to Woman, Entering the Masquerade, and 100 leading ladies.
Honey’s image from the collection ‘Apple of my Eye’ is starred in the 2000’s cover edition of TIME magazine. The front cover of the magazine has cover lines such as ‘why are girls growing up faster’ and ‘puberty’ which suggests this particular magazine is targeted for the adolescent girl, which may need support during these changes. Honey’s work significantly works with the cover lines provided as it shows it is ultimately going to be read by a large mass audience of girls which could be struggling and seek escapism within the form of time magazine. Furthermore Honeys work is ultimately targeted to the female population, or individuals who are struggling with their sexuality which reinforces this idea that many of her existing audience would read the magazine.
100 Leading Lines, Nancy Honey
IMAGE ANALYSIS:
Woman to Woman, 1990
EMOTIONAL RESPONSE:
Looking at this image I can identify Honey’s sense of presenting femininity through stereotypes of sexuality, and how girls are stereotypically known to wear makeup. This idea of using a young girl connects with many of the young audience and creates the sense of a girl community. However, Honey also created the sense of nostalgia through the warm tones in the images, through the golden hour and the orange tone top, which also gives a sense of safe, girlhood society.
VISUAL/TECHNICAL – The information we see:
The lighting in the image is taken during the ‘golden hour’. The golden hour ‘is the period of time just after sunrise or just before sunset when the light is infused with red and gold tones’. The uses of the golden hour lighting brings a sense of warmth and nostalgic tone to the image. The shadow gives a sharp definition to the image highlighting the girls eyes, which is further reinforced with the action of her applying the mascara which leads our eyes through the image. The camera is positioned at eye level to the girl, which suggests this is a documentary genre of photography as the audiences eyes are drawn straight to the girl, giving the sense we are directly watching her and participating. By taking a picture of the girl doing her makeup, gives the sense the photograph is directed to the feminine audience which identify or older generations which would feel as sense of nostalgia. This community gives the sense Honey is trying to portray the idea of a young teenage girl ‘girlhood’.
CONCEPTUAL/CONTEXTUAL – The reasoning behind the image/Surrounding circumstance/information and knowledge
Honey was inspired to explore the project Woman to Woman as she was driven by curiosity to her own sexuality, and the ways it might – and might not be – tie in with the representation of femininity in present society, dominated by men. Honey worked in colour as she believed it displayed raw sexuality, she photographed women of all ages and all different ethnic backgrounds and body type to create a sense of inclusivity. Woman to Woman was published by Hexagon Editions in 1990, and toured the UK and Ireland as a solo show for two years.
“I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character.”
Cindy Sherman
MOODBOARD:
Sherman’s work is relevant to the exam theme Observe, Seek, and Challenge. Sherman fit’s the theme by ‘observing‘ women’s gender stereotypes. She does this by exploring the idea of Mulvey’s theory ‘The Male Gaze’ which can be defined as ‘that states that cinema narratives and portrayals of women in cinema are constructed in an objectifying and limiting manner to satisfy the psychological desires of men, and more broadly, of patriarchal society’. She produces self portrait images that reinforce dominant ideologies of women; as submissive and the homemaker and how ultimately women are objectified and an accessory to men. Sherman’s main projects show the stereotypical views of women, how they are stereotyped to cleaning, cooking, and be submissive, however Sherman also produced a project which she ‘challenged‘ the dominant beauty standards reinforced by men and their definition in how a woman should look like ‘the perfect girl’. She presented this in a hyper-realistic form. In her project she created distorted faces, of women wearing over the top makeup, therefore challenging the beauty industry by creating these parodic images. Parody imitates the style of a particular creator with deliberate exaggerations for comedic effect. Satire uses humour to comment on the world-at-large, particularly in the context of politics. The politic that Sherman is trying to discuss in her photography is feminism, which the suffragettes fought for voting rights for woman. Sherman reinforces this feministic movement with the contrasting images in a parodic way to explore the unrealistic standards that society sets woman.
WHO IS CINDY SHERMAN?
Cindy Sherman was born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman lives and works in New York NY.
Sherman is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. In her early work Sherman explored the conventions and stereotypes of how women are portrayed in films and TV, usually in the view of the ‘male gaze’ as many of the films on TV made more profit by sexualising women. Sherman was always interested in experimenting with different identities. As she has explained, “I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character.” This quote stated by Sherman suggests that she enjoys taking parodic images in order to try and reach the audience that views her work, perhaps she believes the only way to engage with people is through satire humour. These images rely on female characters (and caricatures) such as the jaded seductress, the unhappy housewife, the jilted lover, and the vulnerable naif. Sherman used cinematic conventions to structure these photographs: they recall the film stills used to promote movies, from which the series takes its title.
She further explores the idea of sexual desire and domination, the fashioning of self-identity as mass deception, these are among the unsettling subjects lying behind Sherman’s extensive series of self-portraiture in various guises. Sherman’s work is central in the era of intense consumerism and image proliferation at the close of the 20th century.
Cindy Sherman was on the cover of the gentlewoman magazine for the 2019 spring/summer edition. On the gentlewoman magazine digital page, their intent is to celebrate ‘modern women of style and purpose. Its fabulous biannual magazine offers a fresh and intelligent perspective on fashion that’s focused on personal style – the way women actually look, think and dress. Featuring ambitious journalism and photography of the highest quality, it showcases inspirational women through its distinctive combination of glamour, personality and warmth. These qualities are also at the heart of its website, thegentlewoman.com, a virtual place where real women, real events and real things are enjoyed.’ Sherman being found of the cover of this feminist magazine reinforces her feminist movements, and what she is trying to establish through her own photography work.
Cindy Shermans; Short Film.
IMAGE ANALYSIS:
Untitled Film Still #3 1977
EMOTIONAL RESPONSE:
Looking at this image, I can identify Sherman’s intent to highlight the issues of woman stereotypes. Due to all the feminist movements and yet still technically living in a patriarchal society, Sherman trying to establish a movement through photography allows many woman to identify will her Untitled Film Stills. A dominant ideology that is still present in todays society is that woman are submissive to men, and they do all the domestic work which is was Sherman shows within this image. By standing in the kitchen in what seems like she cleaning still shows the views of woman in todays society and yet how stereotypes can still be observed and such a dominant factor.
VISUAL/TECHNICAL – The information we see:
The image is presented in black and white. Sherman created this Untitled Film Stills in black and white to try and replicate the 1950’s films and film noir, which are primarily presented in black and white. The lighting in the image seems to be coming from an artificial light, perhaps a lightbulb in the room due to the slight shadow seen on the wall in the background due to Sherman stance. Sherman is looking away from the camera, it may be due to the fact of her displaying the role of a 90’s woman that were seen as nurturing and passive therefore would not have the confidence to look directly into the camera. The camera is positioned slightly at an angle which could be to show some of Sherman’s curves as she is standing slightly to the side with her arm on her stomach, which has the connotations the idea of woman being delicate and in need of male attention. However the angle could also be a counter-type to these dominant ideologies of woman due to the angle slightly pointing upwards which establishes dominance and power, which is a contrast to the dominant stereotypes around woman.
CONCEPTUAL/CONTEXTUAL – The reasoning behind the image/Surrounding circumstance/information and knowledge
Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills is a suite of seventy black-and-white photographs in which the artist posed in the guises of various generic female film characters, among them, ingénue, working girl, vamp, and lonely housewife. Sherman staged these woman to resemble scenes from 1950s and ’60s Hollywood, film noir, B movies, and European art-house films. By photographing herself she inserts herself into challenging the stereotypical views of woman. However, in her Untitled Film Series these photographs are not classified as self-portraits, as Sherman explained to the New York Times she often didn’t’t see herself in these picture, rather she thought she disappeared while creating the character. Sherman found her signature approach to photographic self-portraiture while still a student, observing, “I don’t know if it was therapeutic, out of boredom, or my own fascination with thinking about make-up in the mid-seventies… I had this desire to transform myself”.
The camera lens is another demonstration of a powerful gaze, referred to as the photographic gaze, simulating the gaze of the naked eye. Indeed, the former could even be more powerful than the gaze of the naked eye due to photographic permanence.
The act of photographing people involves a process of observation, scrutiny and looking. Sometimes the gaze is returned, and sometimes it is rejected. The power of the gaze can create complex relationships between the subject, the photographer and the audience.The camera lens is another demonstration of a powerful gaze, referred to as the photographic gaze, simulating the gaze of the naked eye.
The gaze, as a visual act, generates modes of power, domination, and control. It has the ability to categorize people, generate feelings of shame, and assert one’s superiority. Susan Sontag in On Photographyaddresses that “photographs are a neat slice of time, not a flow” (17). The stillness of a photograph provides it’s power and makes it more effective than television broadcasting or film. Photography, then, has the ability to capture in “still time” the expression of oppressed subjects as the camera gazes at them.
JOHN BERGER – WAYS OF SEEING:
In Ways of Seeing, an influential book based on a BBC television series, John Berger observed that ‘according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome – men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’ (Berger 1972, 45, 47). Berger argues that in European art from the Renaissance onwards women were depicted as being ‘aware of being seen by a [male] spectator.’ Ways of Seeing is based on the 1972 BBC series and comprised of 7 essays, 3 of which are entirely pictorial, Ways of Seeing is a seminal work which examines how we view art.
Berger adds that at least from the seventeenth century, paintings of female nudes reflected the woman’s submission to ‘the owner of both woman and painting’. However it can still be argued even through woman’s feminist movements, women are still being viewed sexually and through and objective manner through the male gaze.
‘A man’s presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. His presence may be fabricated, in the sense that he pretends to be capable of what he is not. But the pretence is always towards a power which he exercises on others. By contrast, a woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her.’
The juxtaposition in the quote located in Berger’s bool ‘Ways of Seeing’ presents the contrast between gender stereotypes. The man is shown to be more in power and control, whereas the woman is described as dainty and submissive. This quotation shows the past and present view of the gender stereotypes which can also be supported by Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory where women are sexualised for the male gratification.
FORMS OF GAZE:
the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person (or animal, or object) in the text;
the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one depicted person at another (or at an animal or an object) within the world of the text (typically depicted in filmic and televisual media by a subjective ‘point-of-view shot’);
the direct [or extra-diegetic] address to the viewer: the gaze of a person (or quasi-human being) depicted in the text looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer, with associated gestures and postures (in some genres, direct address is studiously avoided);
the look of the camera – the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people (or animals or objects) depicted; less metaphorically, the gaze of the film-maker or photographer.
LESS MENTIONED FORMS OF GAZE:
the gaze of a bystander – outside the world of the text, the gaze of another individual in the viewer’s social world catching the latter in the act of viewing – this can be highly charged, e.g. where the text is erotic (Willemen 1992);
the averted gaze – a depicted person’s noticeable avoidance of the gaze of another, or of the camera lens or artist (and thus of the viewer) – this may involve looking up, looking down or looking away (Dyer 1982);
the gaze of an audience within the text – certain kinds of popular televisual texts (such as game shows) often include shots of an audience watching those performing in the ‘text within a text’;
the editorial gaze – ‘the whole institutional process by which some portion of the photographer’s gaze is chosen for use and emphasis’ (Lutz & Collins 1994, 368)
MOODBOARD:
THE MALE GAZE AND HYPERFEMININITY:
WHAT IS THE MALE GAZE?
The male gaze is a feminist theory that states that cinema narratives and portrayals of women in cinema are constructed in an objectifying and limiting manner to satisfy the psychological desires of men, and more broadly, of patriarchal society.
The term was popularized, fifty years ago, by the British film theorist Laura Mulvey. Mulvey wrote, in 1973 an essay called “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” of how the “male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly.”Mulvey sought to break the conventions and exposing the cinematic conventions in stereotyping women by reinforcing the patriarchal fantasy.Mulvey also notes that Freud had referred to (infantile) scopophilia – the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects. In the darkness of the cinema auditorium it is notable that one may look without being seen either by those on screen by other members of the audience. Furthermore, Mulvey argues that various features of cinema viewing conditions facilitate for the viewer both in the voyeuristic process of objectification of female characters and also the narcissistic process of identification with an ‘ideal ego’ seen on the screen.
‘An idea of woman stands as lynch pin to the system: it is her lack that produces the phallus as a symbolic presence, it is her desire to make good the lack that the phallus signifies’ Mulvey presents this idea that a women’s body its one for the male pleasure, which confirms this idea of the male gaze. Women are exposed highly objectified, and sexualised in order to please the patriarchal society that women are seen as a submissive accessory for men. Furthermore, this idea of highly sexualised women, alludes to the idea of hyper-femininity that highlights the way women are viewed by the male gaze, and how they should present themselves in society.
MY INTENTION FOR THE EXAM PROJECT THROUGH THE PHOTOGRAPHIC GAZE:
For my exam project through the theme, Observe, Seek, and Challenge I plan on studying and photographing females through the male gaze and exploring the idea of hyper femininity. This reinforces the photographic theme of ‘gaze‘ as Laura Mulvey states the ‘structures ways of seeing and pleasure in looking’ which enforces the concept of men gazing at women. In order for this project to fit with the exam requirement’s I will be focusing on the male gaze, and how men have a sexualised view of women which can be seen through the artist Cindy Sherman. In one of Sherman’s photography projects she emphasises the idea of sexualising women for the male society and she interprets this by exaggerating the beauty standards through the hyper-realistic makeup. However, through her interpretation you can argue that she is challenging the beauty standards by taking imagery of the hyper-real makeup by creating the unexpected and forming it into art. The makeup she presents in her photographs challenges the incredibly high beauty standards in the patriarchal society, which could also work for the exam theme ‘challenge’. However in another project she firmly focuses on reinforcing the stereotypical view of women, which could be a protest of the stereotypical views of women.
Cindy Sherman reveals how dressing up in character began as a kind of performance and evolved into her earliest photographic series such as “Bus Riders” (1976), “Untitled Film Stills” (1977-1980), and the untitled rear screen projections (1980)
attempt to find (something):“they came here to seek shelter from biting winter winds
attempt or desire to obtain or achieve (something):“the new regime sought his extradition” · “her parents had never sought to interfere with her freedom”
ask for (something) from someone: “he sought help from the police
(SEEK SOMEONE/SOMETHING OUT)search for and find someone or something: “it’s his job to seek out new customers”
SYNONYMS: search for, try to find, look about for, pursue, try, attempt, endeavour, strive.
CHALLENGE:
NOUN
a call to someone to participate in a competitive situation or fight to decide who is superior in terms of ability or strength: “he accepted the challenge”
a call to prove or justify something: “a challenge to the legality of the banning order”
