Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who is best known for his work in American middle class suburbs. Crewdson describes his influences as mainly film based and therefore his photographs are staged. He has crew of roughly 60 people who work for him to set up scenes for his photographs. His shots on location can take months of planning with huge amounts of production, taking two or three days to produce a single image.
His images are surreal and often have a narrative behind them.

'I'm very interested in the uncanny and a way of looking to find something mysterious or terrible within everyday life. For better or for worse, a lot of my newer pictures seem less dark. The uncanniness is less explicit and more poetic in feel.'
(Crewdson cited in Bright 2005: 80)

This quote sums up Crewdson's work for me. Although some of the photos seem disturbing they do have an element of beauty about them. I believe the way he uses light has a lot to do with this.

The photo above is .The focus of the photo is primarily the woman. The room in which she is in seems to be submerged in water. The reflections in the water make it look like she could be floating. The woman is white and lifeless, making her look dead. Her skin has a transparent quality which is reflected in her clothing. She looks delicate. We wonder how long she has been there. Why she is lying in water? The lighting is quite bright which contrasts with the subject matter. The sun seems to be shinning in through the windows yet the light in the room appears cold. All these features give the photo a slightly eerie feeling. The photo above could easily be a scene from a horror film.

Gregory Crewdson's images are especially relevant to this Video module as they are basically film stills. They have a sense of mystery and surrealism present. They raise questions and seem to present underlying meanings. These are all things we are aiming for in our video.