The Lies We Tell is a set of four photographs presenting the scenes as pseudo-film stills. They are not taken from any particular movie, but they are reminiscent of movies of the 1940s and 50s because of lighting, props, makeup and accessories. I have deliberately left the background vague, instead choosing to use a grey backdrop rather than placing the subject in a home setting.

 

My inspiration for this series was Cindy Sherman’s film stills from the late 1970s. Sherman plays the role of her characters in each film still, and while they are not taken directly from any one movie, as MOMA Highlights said in an article on her works, “they are inventive allusions to generic types….the series is a fiction about a fiction, a deft encapsulation of the image of femininity that, through the movies, took hold of the collective imagination in postwar America.” And this is precisely what I wanted to portray in my images; a type, a woman that could be any woman now or then. Everything from the title of the series, to the titles of the individual works, is a clue. The Lies We Tell is about the lies we tell those around us, the lies fed to us through media and our culture, and the lies we tell ourselves every day.