Gregory Crewdson is an U.S. photographer who is most well known for staging cinematic scenes of suburbia towards dramatic effect. Crewdson’s surreal images are frequently melancholic, offering ambiguous narrative suggestions as well as blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality.
Working with large production teams in order to scout and shoot his images, Crewdson’s photographs have become progressively complex as if it were for a motion picture production, including its painstaking preparation of elaborate sets, lighting as well as cast, as seen in his seminal series Beneath the Roses (2003–2008) in addition Twilight (1998–2001).
Crewdson’s Pictures Are About A Search For A Perfect Moment
Born on September 26, 1962, in Brooklyn, NY, Gregory Crewdson went to the State University of New York at Purchase College where he studied with Jan Groover as well as Laurie Simmons.
In 1988, Crewdson graduated from Yale University with an MFA in photography. Since 1993, he has served on its faculty and is currently as the director of its graduate studies in photography.
Crewdson has cited Steven Spielberg, Diane Arbus, and Edward Hopper as influences on his practice. In 2012, Ben Shapiro’s documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival, charting Crewdson’s harrowing photographic process from beginning to end.
His photographic works are held in the collections such as the:
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Victoria and Albert Museum that is in London
- Museum of Modern Art in New York
A Mix Between Formal And Experimentation
Crewdson’s photography became an intricate mix between his formal photography education in addition to his experimentation with the otherworldly perspective of life and death. His photography became a transcending mix of energetic pigmentation and morbid details within a traditional suburban backdrop.
Unknowingly, Crewdson was in the making of the Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art. This earned him a loyal following both from his previous educators and what would become his future agents and promoters of his incredible work.
The grotesque yet beautifully composed scenes were just the start of Crewdson’s work. All of his work was affected with the same narrative mystery he was so inspired by during his childhood as well as keen eye for the surreal within the regular. Fireflies has become a standout among his collections which is known for their heightened emotion and drama as compared to its simplicity of colour and spontaneity. The exploration of form within his own photography was evident within his transformation of how the photo was taken as opposed to just focusing on the subject.
After years of exploring the notion of cinematic photography, Sanctuary was Crewdson’s return to photography, his original hobby as well as technical training. In recent times, Crewdson has created Cathedral of the Pines, which is similar to Beneath the Roses and Twilight. It is a distanced interpretation of exaggerated drama by an exploration into natural in its most synergetic state. The collection was displayed at Gagosian Gallery in New York City. The collection returns to his early photographic roots in Becket, Massachusetts set deep in the woods far from an understanding of subject and setting.
