CINDY SHERMAN | UNTITLED FILM STILL #16, 1978

Metro Pictures, New York

Eva Respini, Cindy Sherman (New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2012), p. 101

Amanda Cruz, Elizabeth A.T. Smith and Amelia Jones, Cindy Sherman: Retrospective (Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; and Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 1997), pl. 16

Peter Schjeldahl and Michael Danoff, Cindy Sherman (New York, 1984), pl. 14

Peter Schjeldahl and Lisa Phillips, Cindy Sherman (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1987), pl.14

Arthur C. Danto, Untitled Film Stills (New York, 1990), pl. 14

Marco Meneguzzo and Mercedes Garberi, Cindy Sherman (Milan, 1990), p. 23

Thomas Kellein, Cindy Sherman (Basel, 1991), p. 17

Rosalind Krauss, Cindy Sherman: 1975-1993 (New York, 1993), p. 40

Zdenek Felix and Martin Schwander, eds., Cindy Sherman: Photographic Work, 1975-1995 (Munich, 1995), pl. 2

Cindy Sherman: The Complete Untitled Film Stills (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003), p. 79

Cindy Sherman (Paris: Jeu de Paume, 2006), unpaginated

Paul Moorhouse, Raf Simons, Cindy Sherman (National Portrait Gallery Publications, 2019), pl. 76 (another print) 

The Untitled Film Stills series was realized by the artist between 1977 and 1980 at the beginning of her highly influential and celebrated career. The nonchalant twenty-something art school student was starting her artistic explorations in her studio / apartment and then outside with her boyfriend at the time Robert Longo. This powerful series of 70 images became one of the most influential and successful work in Contemporary Photography and was purchased in its entirety by the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMa). This particular image in a smaller size is also held by major institution collections such as The San Fransisco MoMa (SF MoMa) and the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City.

Although Cindy Sherman is not referring directly to a particular actor in a specific movie, she captures the ambiance of 1950s and 60s Hollywood, film noir and European art cinema of film directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007) and Alfred Hitchcock (1899– 1980).

She was inspired by the characters and the atmosphere of these movies, so instead of recreating a role she explored the stereotype of these roles through enigmatic and meticulously composed scenes.

"I took one roll of film, and I had about six different setups of characters that were supposed to be this one actress at various points of her career"

The series continues to intrigue and inspire successive generations because all the images are suggesting a story to be invented by the viewer.