“Nobody on this Earth is going to make these pictures aside from yourself. So if you don’t do it, no one else will.” -Gregory Crewdson
Gregory Crewdson is the photographic equivalent of the painter Edward Hopper combined with the cinematic visions of David Lynch and Hitchcock. His seemingly mundane images explore the surreality of life in small towns. Each scene is carefully crafted down to the smallest detail including casting models — real townspeople — to evoke the emotions he wants his viewers to experience.
Thesis
Gregory Crewdson completed his Masters of Fine Art in photography at Yale in 1988. His thesis featured portrait photographs of the residents of Lee, Massachusetts.
Dioramas
Early on, Gregory Crewdson built dioramas of insects, birds and mutilated body parts that were everyday looking. This was the foundation of his Natural Wonder series.
Constructed photographs
Gregory Crewdson builds his photos as if they were movie sets. This form of photography has been around almost as long as photography itself. It was in vogue as early as the 1850s in the U.K. Scenes were stage sets with actors. Often, multiple exposures on different negatives were combined to produce the final image. The models for these photographs were often paintings of historical events.
He might have been a filmmaker but for a learning disability. “Almost from day one, I was interested in the intersection between movies and a still image.”
“I love movies maybe above all forms of art — the dreamlike quality of going to a movie and watching the light on the screen and being intoxicated by how that world seems separate from our world,” Crewdson said. “But I think in single images, always. I’m dyslexic and have trouble with linear storytelling.”
Redemption Center
This photograph is one of Gregory Crewdson’s constructed images. It shows an odd, old man standing near his grocery cart filled with junk. Is he looking for redemption? (Opening photo, top row, first image.)
Crewdson gathered all of the elements — the actors — people from the town, the old cars and had a painting crew add the name of the work to the building.
Location scouting
“I spend a lot of time driving around, finding locations that can accommodate a picture,” He said, “Returning to these locations, a story will come into my head.”
He tells his life partner and studio manager, Juliane Hiam, what he has seen. She writes a treatment that becomes a guide for the photography.
“There’s no motivation, no plot,” he said. “I love the idea of creating a moment that has no before and after. I do everything I can to make it as powerful as possible.”
Funerary Back Lot
During a drive, Gregory Crewdson happened upon an abandoned location with burial vaults. In the finished photograph, a woman sits on what might have been a set of steps to a long-gone building while another woman bathes in one of the vaults (opening photo, top row, second image.)
Red Star Express
An abandoned General Electric transformer plant forms a background for a street scene with three semi-trailers one of which, the Red Star, is on fire. Three kids on bikes watch as it burns (opening photo, bottom row, first image.)
Gregory Crewdson: Behind the scenes
A lot of work goes into each individual photograph by Gregory Crewdson. This eleven-minute video shows how detailed he is in creating his art photographs.
A documentary, Gregory Crewdson Brief Encounters is a deeper dive into his work.
Very large prints
Gregory Crewdson’s exhibition prints are big, usually around 50 by 60 inches. The large size invites viewers to be more immersed in the image. Many of the details that don’t show in photos printed in books are revealed. Details
Sources: The New York Times, Gagosian Exhibitions,
