Featured Artist: Gregory Crewdson

Brief Encounter by Gregory Crewdson

I just finished another book by Gregory Crewdson: Beneath the Roses.

His dark mysterious photographs are a delight to contemplate. Certainly they would not be well accepted in a hospital setting, but in a collector's home these 4 x 5-foot prints would be stunning.

Many of the images are like the one shown above, often shot just past sunset in small towns. He uses very careful  lighting with multiple light sources: street lights, shop windows, headlights and faint illumination from the gloaming.

Like Jeff Wall he uses actors and elaborate sets to create the scenes he photographs. In the back of the book he has credits, just like in a movie, of the production crew and actors he works with. He often uses 50 or 60 people to help with each image!

I can't imagine working with a crew like that, it would drive me crazy. However, I have been toying with the idea of using actors in my landscapes. This idea came to me when I was reading about the history of landscape painting last year. Historically, landscape paintings almost always showed people. Landscape photographs typically do not show people; but they could...