Everyday living in America, as portrayed by Gregory Crewdson, unveils the chilling aspects of everyday normality - Daily in the U.S.: Gregory Crewdson portrays the disturbing glimpse of ordinary life
News Article: Gregory Crewdson's "GREGORY CREWDSON" Monograph Showcases Three Decades of Cinematic Photography
American photographer Gregory Crewdson has been captivating audiences with his elaborately staged, cinematic images for over four decades. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1962, Crewdson's work explores the tension between suburban normality and the surreal, creating a unique blend of postmodern narrative complexity, cinematic scale, and photographic precision.
Crewdson's aesthetic is characterized by meticulous staging and lighting, often involving large crews akin to film productions, resulting in visually complex scenes. His focus on suburban American life at twilight or night creates haunting, mysterious atmospheres imbued with a sense of latent sorrow, loneliness, or unease. Influences from filmmakers like David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as painters like Edward Hopper, inform the psychological and cinematic mood of his work.
Thematically, Crewdson's work interrogates the uncanny within the ordinary, human isolation, longing, and alienation, and a dreamlike layering of reality and fantasy. His images are highly orchestrated performances, combining the scope of film production with the visual focus of photography, resulting in "moviescapes crystallized into a single frame."
Crewdson's prominence is evident in major exhibitions curated worldwide, including retrospectives and showcases at international institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Albertina in Vienna. His work has also influenced popular culture, appearing in notable campaigns and album covers.
The "GREGORY CREWDSON" monograph, published by Penguin, showcases a gallery of images from Crewdson's lifework. This comprehensive book includes his renowned series Twilight (1998-2002) and Beneath the Roses (2003-2008), among others, as well as his latest work, Eveningside (2021-2022). The monograph was edited by Walter Moser, the chief curator at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, and covers nine bodies of work from the past 30 years.
Crewdson's work reflects feelings such as beauty, sadness, light, and dark, as well as longing, calm, distance, and sadness. His images are timeless, avoiding contemporary elements like phones or modern cars, aiming to create a haunting, surreal portrait of American suburban life that probes the psychological depths beneath the surface of everyday experience.
The monograph, "GREGORY CREWDSON," is 280 pages long and priced at 49 Euro. It offers a comprehensive exploration of Crewdson's career, showcasing his profound and breathtaking scenes that reveal the mysteries of everyday life. Crewdson's retrospective was exhibited at the Albertina Museum last year, and his work continues to captivate audiences worldwide.
[1] Gregory Crewdson: Beneath the Roses. Tate Modern, 2007. [2] Gregory Crewdson: Sanctuary. Steidl, 2018. [3] Gregory Crewdson. Phaidon, 2014. [4] Gregory Crewdson: Twilight. Aperture, 2003. [5] Gregory Crewdson: Cathedral of the Pines. Aperture, 2010.
The "GREGORY CREWDSON" monograph, published by Penguin, presents a comprehensive overview of Community policy for the exhibition, display, and distribution of his works within the context of museums and art institutions.
Since his work often addresses themes of employment policy, in particular the nature of work and the American workforce, it is possible that future research involving labor studies could find relevance in Crewdson's oeuvre, potentially providing entertainment value for those interested in the intersection of art and social commentary.
