Cindy Sherman is best known for her self portraiture work in which she creates elaborate scenes to tell a story. I believe her views on photography are applicable to commercial work because of this. She takes these small notions and brings light to them by dressing herself a specific way, putting on makeup to emulate someone or something and building backgrounds and sets to further tell her stories. These exact types of things happen in the commercial industry every day.
Sherman may not ever be selling a specific product in her photographs but when analyzing a larger body of her work you can see where product placement could actually work really well. In her work Untitled 96 we see Sherman dressed up in the garb of a child, lying on the ground and holding the wrapper to something. Whenever I look at this image it makes me think she could be holding the used container of a Smuckers peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something to that effect simply because of the compositional choices she made with the photograph. The color and pattern of the dress makes me think of a picnic and the types of food that you would bring on one.
She has more recently been seen making work including more products from popular culture. She did an entire series of photographs where she dressed herself up in these fantastic outfits while dawning her face with MAC cosmetics. These images were seen as more of a theatrical take on the wear of makeup and do not appear natural at all. The point of the photographs were to show the power that MAC cosmetics has for more theatrical purposes such as drag, theater or other forms of performance. In this way, Sherman really does take the experience she has as a fine art photographer and the styles and views she has cultivated over the multiple years and really put them into the context of a certain product to further expand on those views.
David LaChappelle's work combines aspects of commercial and fine art to create intriguing and colorful works that is sure to influence photographers for multiple generations. His work usually includes a cacophony of colors and textures accompanied by celebrities and elaborate set designs to either sell a product or tell a story.
Some of his most famous work was created for commercial purposes and I believe more people respond to these simply because of their straightforward nature. Even though the photographs themselves are not simple by any means, the way he makes consumers want to buy a product is intriguing. An ad that comes to mind, is one that features Amber Rose dressed in these glorious gowns made to emulate the new “flavors” of Sminoff Vodka. All she is doing is standing there holding glasses of each specific flavor but the makeup and set design along with the composition and lighting make her appear as she is a “tall drink of vodka” and the clarity sells to consumers.
Some criticize the work of LaChappelle for furthering the stereotype of women as objects and using an immense amount of retouching in his work but he really seems to enjoy using these aspects to his advantage when creating advertisements. He also like to use the aspect of spectacle as a tool to draw in the attention of viewers and play to his own unique style. His work may be over the top, oversexed and oversaturated but this distinct style he has created will definitely be taught and analyzed as a way to sell products in the foreseeable future.
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