Untitled #97
Sherman’s photographs Untitled #97, 98, 99 and 100 are collectively known as her ‘Pink Robes’ series. They feature a pink chenille bathrobe, the only prop used in this series apart from a white face towel, and the edge or corner of a chair, in #100. In the first three images Sherman holds the robe to her body, covering herself with it; in the last image she wears it. The photographs were shot close-up so that the artist entirely fills the frame. They are slightly larger than life size. The images become progressively darker through the series; in all of them the background is too dark to be visible. Sherman has explained: ‘I was thinking of the idea of the centerfold model. The pictures were meant to look like a model just after she’d been photographed for a centerfold. They aren’t cropped, and I thought that I wouldn’t bother with make-up and wigs and just change the lighting and experiment while using the same means in each.’
