Cindy Sherman - Untitled Film Stills

Cindy Sherman's work is mostly made up of self-portrait as different characters. Her most notable work takes the form 87 photographs 'Untitled film stills', where she aimed to create images that seemed like they could be taken on the set of a film, however they were all completely constructed. Sherman has a unique ability to take on a character and use expressions and gaze to create a narrative with the surroundings. Lighting is obviously a huge part of photography, and Sherman's work has a clear emphasis on using lighting to create the atmosphere of a movie set, without actually being on a movie set. The portraits give Sherman a new personality every time, yet they're generic enough that each individual viewer can relate them to a movie cliche and make their own narrative based on what they see. I really admire Sherman's approach to her work, and her ability to create wildly different characters and moods with each shot. She uses lighting in a very interesting and sophisticated way, and I want to learn from these skills.

How am I taking this artist into consideration for my own work?

I want to take inspiration from her use of lighting to create a certain atmosphere, especially when I'm recreating portraits of my grandparents. I'd like to be able to take on their characters as well as Sherman did with 'Untitled film stills', and possibly create a narrative too.