Question: what was the inspiration for cindy sherman’s untitled film stills series

title: Untitled Film Stills
text: Untitled Film Stills is a series of sixty - nine black and white photographs by American visual artist Cindy Sherman from 1977 - 1980 , which gained her international recognition . The artist poses in various stereotypical female roles inspired by 1950 's and 60 's Hollywood , Film noir , B movies , and European art - house films . They represent clichés or feminine types ( the office girl , bombshell , girl on the run , housewife , and so on ) `` that are deeply embedded in the cultural imagination . '' The character in all of these photographs are always looking away from the camera and outside of the frame . Sherman casts herself in each of these roles , becoming both the artist and subject in the work. The art historian Rosalind Krauss described this series as `` copies without originals '' . All of the images are untitled , as Sherman wanted to preserve their ambiguity . The numbers affiliated with individual works of art are assigned by her gallery , mainly as a cataloguing system . In December 1995 , The Museum of Modern Art ( MOMA ) acquired all sixty - nine black - and - white photographs in the series . In past exhibitions at MOMA , the photographs are neither hung chronologically , nor grouped according to theme , locale , or content . Modest in scale compared to Sherman 's later cibachrome photographs , they are all 8 1 / 2 by 11 inches , each displayed in identical , simple black frames . The glossy finish and scale are meant to reference publicity or promotion stills for a movie . In the essay The Making of Untitled , Cindy Sherman reflects on her beginnings with this series :